"Following the goings on in the group for what seems like forever, it is apparent some worship the markup at the expense of making effective web pages. Almost seems like some wacky religion to say 'I made this page by hand, and it validates!' suggesting that's all that matters. That's being penny wise and pound foolish. "
-- big daddy, in ciwah

CSS came about when it was needed the most, when the Web became commercially popular and HTML started to be written by graphic designers, not geeks with too much free time.

That it has not taken off as its creators may have envisioned can be put down to ignorance and inertia. As I've said elsewhere, my artistic talents are limited and frankly I'd rather bang on the keyboard to get my fevered thoughts the hell out of my brane and onto the Web than spend endless hours tweaking appearance and formatting. But I'm pleased to be able to harness a little bit of the power of style sheets, and even more pleased to find that the good folks at the W3C who are working on CSS are recognizing the really clever style sheet usage out there.

This page, if you are using a CSS-compliant browser, is formatted using the W3C's Chocolate style sheet. It's one of the eight or so Core Styles that the W3C encourages linking to, and if you don't like it there are plenty of other ones to choose from.

I guess that's what it is about - choice and accessibility, and since the beginning the Web has provided that for users and authors alike. The Web may not have lived up to its expectations, but it is very much a work in progess and we can safely assume that now, eleven years after its inception, we have just begun to discover what we can do.

A few of the neater links I've run across while refreshing my CSS skills follow -

Geektools

• The CSS section of the W3C is where it all starts.
• For quick reference I frequently turn to the Web Design group's htmlhelp.com, specifically the CSS Properties page.
• The House of Style has a Complete CSS Guide online, free for the taking.
• and I've used Bradsoft's TopStyle CSS tool in the past - it's a good way to get used to style sheets and includes a validator.

Pretty shiny things

• There is some gorgeous demo work done at css/edge - likely it will not work with Internet Explorer - it really is bleeding-edge stuff.
• You could do a lot worse than to look at the CSS panic guide at thenoodleincident.com.
• There are also some nice examples with code at ePearl.net.