Polymers with high thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability based on a ladder-type structure (see figure), have suffered in the past from insolubility or infusibility. A new strategy for the controlled synthesis of processible ladder polymers, based on Diels-Alder polymerization is reviewed, and the polymers considered as precursors to graphite ribbons, materials predicted to have properties lying between graphite and single-stranded polyacetylene.