xv ii
Introduction
Coming to web development with a blank slate can be pretty intimidating. There are a lot of things to learn
about the proper construction of a website, and the most successful websites have a great deal of thought
and work put into thembefore they’re even put into production
Although it can be scary, there has never been a better time to get started than the present. Web brows-
ers are finally starting to reach a point where they all follow web standards (more or less). You have to do
less fiddling with things to get them working properly now than ever before. We don’t want to jinx it, but we
think we can finally start letting our guard down a bit and start trusting browser manufacturers more (yes,
even Microsoft).
Who is this book for?
This book is intended for people who are new to developing for the Web and those who are interested in
overhauling their current work to be standards-compliant. It is relevant to individuals working within com-
panies and institutions, as well as for those who freelance.
How is this book structured?
This book offers a brief history of the World Wide Web and then walks the reader through several chapters
on each of the areas relevant to developing a website. Each chapter covers a separate process or technol-
ogy relevant to working with the Web today.
Readers learn about planning a website, managing the design and development process, and develop-
ment using web standards; we also provide an overview of server-based technologies and share sample
projects along the way.
Conventions used in this book
To keep this book as clear and easy to follow as possible, the following text conventions are used through-
out.
Important words or concepts are normally highlighted on the first appearance in italic type.
Code is presented in fixed-width font.
New or changed code is normally presented in bold fixed-width font.
Pseudo-code and variable input are written in italic fixed-width font.
Menu commands are written in the form Menu ➤ Submenu ➤ Submenu.
Where we want to draw your attention to something, we’ve highlighted it like this:
Ahem, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
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