CMSY129 Principles of the
Internet
Week #7 - HTML
January 26 - February 1, 2002
Almost all web pages consist of HTML (HyperText Markup Language). HTML is a standard recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and followed by the major browsers. If you can create an HTML file, you can create a web page.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a set of special codes referred to as "tags," that tell a web browser how to display a hypertext document. It's a collection of styles (indicated by markup tags) that define the various components of a web page. All HTML documents are in plain text (ASCII) format making them universally readable by different web browsers running on different computer platforms, such as PC, Macintosh, and Unix.
From Netscape or Internet Explorer, if you go to View | Page Source, you can view the HTML code that makes up almost any page on the internet. The HTML code for your home page for this class would look something like this:
All you need to write an HTML file is a text editor like Notepad and a web browser to view the document with. Write your HTML pages with the text editor and save it as a text-only file with an .htm extension. Then open the file in your browser to see what it looks like. You can go back to the original HTML file as often as you like to edit it.
There are many tools available for creating web pages; many of them don't require that you know how to program in HTML. You can download Netscape Communicator's Professional Edition and use it to write HTML pages. Another popular editor is Hot Dog, whch can be downloaded from Sausage Software. Microsoft's FrontPage, which you have to purchase to use, lets you create web pages in a word-processing-like environment, and save the resulting pages as HTML documents, which you can upload to your ISP's server (if your ISP allows web page hosting).
It's a good idea to become familiar with the basic concepts of HTML, though - it's what's going on "under the hood" on every web site that you visit.
To familiarize yourself with HTML code and standards, read The Beginner's Guide to HTML, published on the web by NCSA.
Publishing
Publishing on the internet is as simple as setting up a web site. Unlike the cash outlay required for publishing on paper (for equipment, trained personnel, ongoing paper costs, recycling, chemical disposal, etc.), the never-ending worldwide conversation of the internet allows everyone to participate as long as they have internet access. Everyone is a publisher, and no one is an editor. There are many sites that offer free web publishing as well. You can read a
PC Magazine review of some of these sites here:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/webcommunities/
Angelfire http://www.angelfire.com
GeoCities http://www.geocities.com
Homestead http://www.homestead.com
Hometown AOL http://hometown.aol.com
theglobe.com http://www.theglobe.com
Tripod http://www.tripod.com
Xoom http://www.xoom.com
Reading: URLS with information
on this subject
Self Test: Take the quiz for this unit
Assignments:
- Free Web Publishing Comparison (100 points)
Compare the cost and terms of three publishing sites (Geocities, Angelfire, etc.) and submit your results via this form. - Creating a Web Page (300 points)
Using one of the tools available online (or a page creation tool you might have such as FrontPage, Dreamweaver, or even Notepad), create a web page based on the criteria listed here. - Course Evaluation – please let us know how you liked this course by filling out the evaluation form here.
Click this link to review the grading system for this course
Deadline: Plan to
turn this in no later than February 1, 2002.
Email me:
if you have
questions about this assignment