A friend of mine (very smart and computer savvy) wants to learn the front-end part of making websites.

I would like her to be table to use a simple VCS e.g. Bazaar on her Macbook and code HTML+CSS in Textmate. I don't think she needs to understand the terminal.

Bonus points if she can go to Haml+Compass after she grokked HTML and CSS.

I've learnt this stuff gradually over a few years, but now I'm trying to find the best resources that could give her a solid understanding of how it all works. Here is what I have so far:

- HTML 4.01 & 5 spec - CSS 2.1 spec & supported CSS 3 - Textmate's built-in references - Quirskmode for cross-browser stuff - Me being around and answering questions

I am still looking for something that explains the underlying logic of CSS visual formatting less dryly than the W3C's spec does. I wish she doesn't have to struggle with having her mental model of CSS constantly re-adjust until it is finally in tune with reality (that's what happened to me).

Note : She does have a project to work on. She's not learning for learning's sake.