about this site
This site redesign was born out of a desire to dispense with the traditional bloated hotchpotch mixture of positional and structural HTML, and to utilize the languages of HTML & CSS precisely as they were meant to be used: HTML for document structure and CSS for positioning & visual effects.
Like most multimedia & web authors, I've despaired at the incompatibilities between different web browsers, but at last and not before time true standards are beginning to emerge and be supported.
Not all is yet sweetness and light. Internet Explorer remains the most widely used browser and also remains the biggest fly in the ointment. It’s 'broken' in a number of significant ways, and in versions prior to IE6 these breaks can have a catastrophic visual impact on a site design. Whilst there are a variety of hacks to circumvent the majority of these broken bits (some of which will fail in IE7), when the pressure is on and deadlines are looming it’s so much simpler to revert to the age-old method of using frames, tables & spacer images to get the layout you want.
Nevertheless, after many weeks of frustrating study and experimentation this site is the result. It ‘aint perfect by any means. CSS can make some positioning & visual effects so much simpler whilst others are next to impossible to achieve; without using JavaScript, just how can you horizontally and vertically centre a fixed-width fixed-height DIV within the browser window and have it reposition itself in response to the user resizing the browser?
Compromises aside, I hope the site looks good in your chosen browser!
