his page is about the internet and
HTML writing. I do NOT claim to be an expert on the
subject but do hope that this can help some aspiring web author. As always, my SOURCE
for most of this stuff was, and can be, found on the Net.
Introduction to HTML|
his page is about the internet and
HTML writing. I do NOT claim to be an expert on the
subject but do hope that this can help some aspiring web author. As always, my SOURCE
for most of this stuff was, and can be, found on the Net.
|
 yperText
Markup Language is a still
evolving standard which adds various attributes to text files, i.e., it makes a text file
pretty, for publication on the World Wide Web. HTML lets you mix graphics with text,
change the appearance of text, and create hypertext documents which interact with the
user. The HyperText ability is the key HTML attribute. It allows you to *jump* from
one location to another, one document to another, via *links*. The Windows help program
is an example of hypertext in action. Links here are underlined, much like in HTML, and
allows a user to leap from topic to topic, as well leave a trail of his path. Note that
you can also use HTML to create useful files for use at home. The ability to name sections,
the text formatting, and the ease of graphics insertion makes the format ideal for stories
and databases [small ones, can't sort! though you can use a spread sheet to sort then
insert the data].
| |
|
TML
attributes are defined by "tags". A tag looks like this: or .
Most HTML functions have an opening [turns it on] and a closing [turns it off, a "/"
before the HTML code will turn off the attribute] tag. The attribute applies to all
text and most images in between the two tags. For example, is the tag for
"italics". Any text between the first and a subsequent
will be displayed in italics when the document is viewed by an appropriate browser.
Like NetScape. Tags are of course invisible; thus this HTML sentence: | |
Any text between the first and a subsequent will
be displayed in BOLD when the document is viewed by an appropriate browser.
| |
|
he current HTML standard is still HTML 2.0.
The draft for HMTL 3.0, which was a huge leap forward from HTML 2, has expired and will not
be pursued. The current draft is HTML
3.2. The major additions are for handling of the java applets. NetScape implements its
own extensions, or enhancements as NetScape calls them, to HTML. These are not supported by
all browsers; i.e., not everyone will be able to read your NetScape Enhanced pages. I say,
tough, let them get NetScape; it is as close to a standard as can be. Yeah yeah, I know
there's that other browser out there but... [Read about one woman's view/experiences of MSFT]. I do try to design my pages so that other browsers
*can* read them; they won't look exactly like the way I intended them to look. The best
web authors [I am clearly not included in this group!!] design functional and good looking
web pages regardless of the browsers used. This obviously takes much more work and
debugging. See my spiffy page for tips on tweaking your
NetScape setup. Some NetScape enhancements will probably make it into HTML 3.2, the
current draft proposal.
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 eb pages can be supported by
CGI [Common Gateway Interface]
scripts. These scripts, programmable in any language [i.e., Perl, C/C++, any Unix shell,
Visual Basic, etc...] provide an interface to your computer from the web.
Because cgi scripts essentially allow an outsider to access your host computer, not all
web servers will allow user defined scripts. Most, however, will have some predefined
scripts available for you to use. Check with your provider. The new NetScape 3.0
supports Java's applets, allowing further control and interactivity of web pages.
Java may well replace all other scripts. See my spiffy page
for some more details. | |
 ne of the key strengths of HTML
[and the Internet in general] is that a document conforming to the HTML standard can be
understood no matter what sort of software or computer the reader has. For example, the
same page can be interpreted by someone using NetScape in Windows, someone using Lynx on
UNIX, or even a blind person using special software. Again, some of these will operate in
a text only mode. |
Go to: [Top | Main
| References | The homepage
| Bottom/Mail]
| What | Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The www FAQ | FAQ, news.answers, c.i.www, | This is a www FAQ, kindly maintained by Thomas Boutell. It may also be found in the following UseNet groups: news.answer, comp.infosystems.www. |
| The Internet | Internet, Beginner's Guide |
Yahoo's well done internet primers. Lots of links. |
| Zen and the Internet |
Another excellent
starting point | Brendan P. Kehoe's well written tome. A little dated but provides all the basics. |
| Providers | Sites for your Home Page |
A motivational / writing help page, by Victory Crayne. This page has a listing of free or low cost providers. |
| My Web Provider | BHI | Beverly Hills Internet. |
| Web Browser | NetScape | The best web browser around, no question. |
| HTML Editor | Hot Dog | This is a very good shareware HTML Editor. |
| A Beginner's Guide to HTML | A Beginner's Guide | A very good primer. |
| The Official HTML Page | WWW Consortium | The people developing HTML 3.2 |
| HTML Help Page | Cheat Sheet | Steve Tibbett created this useful HTML help page. Visit his home page as well. |
| Winsock [web] | Stroud's | An excellent web site for internet tools. |
| Winsock [ftp] | Papa's | An excellent ftp site for internet tools. |
| Colours | Colours, Color Picker |
Colour codes for NetScape (70k). Better yet, d/l Vector Development's [the same folks who gave us the highly useful DUNce] freeware Color Picker (44k). |
| Printed Books | Actual books | Pretend you found it online and printed it : ) |
 have a PC based system. I have a PPP
[actually a C-PPP] connection with Netcom. I
connect using Windows 95's DUN and then use Agent
for news and mail. I am using the 32 bit NetScape 3.0
to browse the web, and find it very good so far. Just don't use it for news and mail.
[Substitute a number from 1-9 if you cannot get into NetScape's ftp server 5. Also, log
into the base directory to get
earlier, 16 bit, and beta versions of NetScape. I write my pages explicitly for the
NetScape browser [see above]. See my spiffy page for tips
on tweaking your NetScape setup. I evaluated
Hot Dog as an HTML Editor [it is an excellent one] but find that writing free hand
is just as easy. So, I now use Notepad for quick fixes or Word Perfect / Word for more
rigorous writing [especially the spell check!]. MS Word does have a patch to convert it
into an HTML editor. Go to the dreaded MS site at http://www.microsoft.com.
But don't do it!!
know that the Yahoo section is rather
vast, so... My email addresses are all over the place.
|
Go to: [Top | Main
| References | The homepage
| Bottom/Mail]
