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A few months later, I caught up with The Coordinator at his civilian identity's workplace, - I couldn't divulge any real details when my original article was printed. His secret identity has now been revealed, so I've filled in the details of where this interview took place below.
This tiny windowless room smells of old coffee and doughnuts. An odd place to find a super-hero.
The Coordinator: I only have an hour for lunch, so we'll have to make this brief. Protecting the world wide web and the US Mail isn't a job to be done on an empty stomach . . .
The Coordinator mugs for a non-existent camera and speaks, insisting that children everywhere eat three fully balanced meals a day, especially their greens.
LR: I only have a few questions, really more of an attempt to make sense of these notes. I spoke with Mac Attack back in August, and she said you were the inspiration for the team name. I'd like to hear more about that.
C: Well old chum, I don't know where he got that idea. It wasn't me, I think Ars Gratia Artis came up with it. Mac Attack is very creative, but she tends to get confused at times. You know how artists are . . .
Not that I mind purple, its a very attractive color . . .
The Coordinator once again turns aside, and speaks like a TV announcer, telling kids everywhere to pay attention in school, especially in math class.
LR: Yes, well since the team was formed in December of 1999 what do you feel your team has accomplished?
C: We've upheld web standards. Protected the weak. Encouraged the use of xhtml and CSS rather than deprecated tags. We've shown America and the world that proper planning, that good, clean, code that follows web standards and is tested in all major browsers can give us a world wide web that we can all be proud of.
Specifically, I provide leadership to the Purple Team and create xhtml mark up and the cascading style sheets for our team.
On windows I've used notepad. Notepad++ is another option available for Windows users at no cost.
Our Macintosh user used TextWrangler to craft this document. Smultron is another option. Both are free, and Smultron is free and open source.
For our readers:
Notepad++ is
everything that Windows users love about Notepad and more!
Textwrangler
from Bare Bones software, makers of the professional grade BBEdit text
editing software provide TextWrangler as freeware.
Smultron which is named after a
Scandanavian berry and is free and open source under an Apache license.
We had Adobe Dreamweaver available to us, however we felt it was best to do our design work in a back to basics fashion, merely using simple text editors, all of which were available at no cost.
This provided greater control of our mark up, and while Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG editors provide instant gratification, nobody has ever had to clean up behind notepad. I think this provides a great example to all the little web developers out there watching us!
LR: Is that all?
C: No, it really isn't. We have also demonstrated the importance of site maintenance and troubleshooting, with emphasis on how crucial it is to work as a team on large projects.
LR: Actually I meant, were you going to deliver another public service message . . .
C: Oh! My! I forgot!
And then he reminded all of his little web developer fans about the importance of W3c standards compliance, and using standards compliant browsers themselves to provide a good example for others. He also stressed proper planning, writing good code and keeping a site timely and navigable with a focus on the end user's needs.
Seemingly without drawing a breath, he reminded these future web developers to buy U. S. Savings Bonds, give to the charity of their choice and study hard in math class. Turning back to me he said . . .
C: I'm sorry, I guess that was a long one. I'm going to have to get back to work. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Don't forget to dress warm and have a healthy breakfast every morning.
LR: Ummm. I'll try to keep that in mind, Coordinator. Thank you for your time.
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