HTML & CSS: The Good Parts

Acknowledgments

When I reflect upon my experiences of 15 years as a site builder, the quality that impresses me most is ignorance. There’s plenty of it to go around, and like many site builders, I often take opportunities to castigate the ignorance of others less skilled…but not in this book.

Why?

Of greater concern still is my own ignorance, which is no less deserving of criticism. Close on the heels of ignorance are trepidation and obstinacy, both of which were regular contributors to my internal dialogue during the year that I took to write this book.

Given that attitude, this book attempts to exemplify the belief that one should light a candle for others to find their way, instead of cursing the darkness. I give fair due to the comfort engendered by continued reliance upon legacy production techniques, and where best practices are mentioned, I make a point of selling them as softly as I can without muddling my message.

In sum, I tried to fill this book with the advice that would have stood me in good stead eight or nine years ago, that instead many people (including myself) sorted out only by trial, error, and accident, and thence shared one iota at a time as they became able.

I hope that this book will be as useful to you now, as it would’ve been to me when I was working toward CSS mastery.

There are a number of people whose involvement in my life brought me far enough to achieve that state of mastery and to write this book. Since this is my first chance to call them out fully in ...