<html> Topic 2

Why your effort to write good html matters.

Who would believe that millions of people around the world can communicate with such a variety of equipment and languages? This is possible because html is a universal standard. Maintaining that standard is a commitment to keeping the web available to everyone. Although the majority of people currently use Netscape and Internet Explorer, a recent count found 704 varieties of browser. HTML is the way we all can communicate. Now mobile phones and hand-held devices are reading the web. Some estimate that within two years most web browsing will be done with devices other than the computer browsers we are using now. Your effort to write valid html will help keep the web intact.

When my young friend learned to embroider, her grandmother insisted that the back of the piece look just about as good as the front. "But who will look there?" my friend wailed. "Anyone who takes pride in their own work," her grandmother answered. Now a neighbor tells me that the wheel covers on a car should be aligned so that the logos "match" when the car is at rest. "Who would notice such a thing?" I ask. He sighs as if to say, "Anyone who matters." Doing clean html code is like good embroidery and wheel covers. It matters to professionals and to those who care about maintaining the web.

What to do to master this topic:

1. Read the first seven pages at Jeffrey Zeldman's Ask Dr. Web at http://www.zeldman.com/askdrweb/html.html. These are especially useful when getting started. Read the FAQs at the Web Standards Project at http://www.webstandards.org/.

2. Take a look at which browsers access Yahoo at http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~ejk/bryl.htm and which browsers we will be designing for until 2003, an article by Jakob Nielsen at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990418.html . See other recommended readings for topics 1 and 2 available through the link below.

3. Try the quiz for week 2. Don't worry; you will not be "graded" on this quiz and you do not need to send it in. It is just for your use, to check what you recall.

4. Send me the URL address of your web site* where you will post homework, if you have not done so already. In the subject of your message include the phrase "My Site". You will post homework assignments on your web page.

*To make sure you get the entire URL address correct, go to the site, highlight the address as it appears in the browser address box at the top of your screen, go to "Edit" on the toolbar and select "Copy." When you get to the message you are sending to the ListServ or Instructor, simply "Paste" the copied address in the text.

5. Let's discuss these issues on the ListServ. In the "subject" of your discussion include the phrase "Unit 2 Topics". Each student is asked to comment on one or more of the following topics:

Why do web standards matter?
Why is it worthwhile to learn html when there are editors like Netscape Composer, Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe PageMill and Macromedia Dreamweaver that can do it so easily?
What variables affect how a page displays? Describe an experience when a web page you designed or admired looked quite different when viewed on another computer. Or have you ever had a web page seem to garble on your browser?
Were there any particular points made in the readings that made an impression on you?

Web Version

Instructor: dwang@think-ink.net