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Foreword
As a bloke of that “certain age,” I can remember the television series that were shown in the
1970s and early 1980s. My brother and I would stay glued to the telly each Saturday teatime.
From Roddy McDowell’s unconvincing ape suit in the TV spin-off from the Planet of the Apes
movies, to Logan’s Run; from “Grasshopper” David Carradine in Kung Fu, to my own personal
favorite, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno in the pre-CGI Incredible Hulk; we couldn’t get enough.
These shows and many more just like them shared a common 1970s theme. While the Hulk
of the original comic books just got angry, the television Banner, unexpectedly dosed by gamma
radiation before he could slap on the sun block, lived outside of society. Sure, he got angry and
ripped his trousers, but as he traveled across the country from place to place, along the way he
met new people and helped to solve their problems—problems that no one had been able to
solve before.
Like the rag-tag band of ships that followed Battlestar Gallactica on its quest for a faraway
Earth, each of the characters in these series knew where they wanted to go, they just didn’t
know how to get there. The map to Earth or Logan’s Sanctuary, or for the Hulk a course on
anger management, just hadn’t been written.
By now you might be wondering, “What on Earth is Malarkey rambling on about? This book
is about web design, not television trivia from the decade that time best forgot.” But as a web
designer who came late to the world of meaningful markup and CSS, I can identify with the Hulk.
Solving problems is what web designers do, and not just for half an hour every Saturday
teatime. We solve problems every day for our clients and for their visitors; we also solve the
problem of how to implement our designs with web standards.
When I started my own journey toward web standards, I knew very little about CSS floats
and positioning, and I got angry when my design layouts fell apart in a browser. While my
trousers (almost) always stayed intact, I was filled with an inner rage when my columns dropped,
my margins collapsed, or my font sizing misbehaved. I knew the results that I wanted to achieve
and where I wanted to go, but I didn’t know how to get there. At that time there was no clear
map for people like me who understood design but needed a book to show the way between my
design visuals and the standards-based web pages that I wanted to deliver to my clients.
If you are starting out on a similar journey, you’re in luck. Simon Collison has written that
roadmap, a book that clearly explains how to make your designs a reality using XHTML and CSS.
Simon knows what it’s like to design at the sharp end of the web design business. He comes to
web standards not from an academic interest but from a real need to get stuff done. I have long
admired his design skills and his uncanny ability to explain complex subjects in clear language.
I know that beginning to work with web standards will sometimes make you angry; that’s
unavoidable. I also know that this book will help you to keep any outbursts free from shirt button
popping, trouser ripping, or maybe even car throwing. Thanks to Simon Collison, the world is a
safer place for us to live.
Andy Clarke
June 2006
Collison_689-7FRONT.fm Page xvii Wednesday, July 26, 2006 9:13 AM