I found some useful information about HTML and web designing for those not so savy, like myself (oXRavenXo). These tools and descriptions will allow you to better understand what HTML is, how HTML will benefit you, and descriptions of other Acronyms associated with HTML. Enjoy!
What is HTML?
Do you know what it stands for? And Why?
The easy answer is that html is the language of web pages. The trouble is; that it's incomplete! Many moons ago, the use of typewriters to lay out text pages meant that changing a line required retyping a page. Then some clever characters sat down and figured out how to use computers to manipulate the words on a page so that words, lines, blocks of text or entire paragraphs could be moved around at will, and the computer would again lay out the page for you. They called it "Word Processing" and it was a big new deal! It also included the ability to mark certain pieces of text to be printed bold or underlined or various other special treatments. This was accomplished by using special sequences of characters, or codes, to indicate the beginning and ending of the bold (or whatever) text. These codes were known as "mark-ups", and the collection of them was a Mark-up Language. Since it was used in Word Processing, it was a Word Processing Markup Language. With the addition of codes that would link a word or phrase to another document file, providing the ability to jump from one to the other (a system called "Hypertext"), came the creation of HyperText Markup Language or HTML.
The birth of the World Wide Web is related to the release of Marc Andreesen's Mosaic browser. Note that the term "browser" is closely related to the concept of a "Web" of documents (pages) spread "World Wide" and through which one can "browse" by traversing "HyperText" links. This is a system conceived by Tim Berners-Lee. Thus, the World Wide Web is a collection of document files ("Web Pages") linked to each other through the transport mechanism of the Internet.
CGI is another term that often brings confusion. CGI is a specification for an interface (say what???) CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. It's actual a means of connecting from a Web Server program to a scripting language that can perform functions outside the Server's own capabilities. Programs written to be accessed via a CGI interface are frequently referred to as CGI programs or even CGIs. This leads to the notion that CGI is a language, which it is not. Programs written for the CGI are often written in Perl, which is a script programming language. "PERL" originally stood for Practical Extraction and Report Language and was design and written by Larry Wall.
By the way, ASP, which stands for Active Server Pages uses another scripting language. Based on Visual Basic(VB), VB Script is the language of ASP. They say that on the Internet things change so quickly that you have to measure time like you do for a dog's age, and count seven years for each calendar year. No exception here, as ASP is now to be replaced by ASP.Net (Asp dot Net)
"What exactly is Dot Net?" you say. It's easiest to clarify by first saying what it is not. It is not a language. In fact, one of its beauties is that is allows the use of several languages seamlessly in the same application (for example, in a larger project there could be several programmers each using their own favorite language, but each interacting seamlessly with the others - maybe not a good idea to do, but it's great that you could!) The big advantage here is in the ability to reuse code from another application that may not have been written in your language of choice.
The world of computers is rife with acronyms. There are so many, and they have been used so much, that some have become words in their own right. Did you know that "Bit" derived from Binary digIT? How about flops (FLoating point Operations Per Second)? And mime (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions)?
Boot and Reboot , while not acronyms, derive from the expression "to pull up by its bootstraps" and refer to the process of loading an Operating System (OS) by first loading a small loader program from a predetermined place. If you come across a computer expression you've not heard before, nod knowingly, say "Ahh yes!" then excuse yourself, run to a PC (Personal Computer ) pull up a browser (thanks Marc) and go to webopedia.com This way you'll avoid the embarrassment of not protecting yourself from a pulsing zombie. I hate it when that happens!
How can HTML benefit you?
HTML provides the basic structure for your website, so it’s the foundation for your business getting its message to current customers and potential customers. When you understand the basic principles of HTML, you can begin to format your web pages to have a more unique and in- house appearance. Brand recognition is important in business, and a little HTML coding can change a template style web page into something that is unique and recognizable. In addition to displaying advertising copy, pictures, brochures and the like, you can also:
· Provide users with a feedback form to submit basic information to you through the website.
· Generate an email
· Offer a Guestbook
How can you Learn HTML?
As you might suspect, there is a seemingly endless supply of web-based tutorials and instructional materials for learning about HTML. There are a number of Internet-based tutorials to get you started, and to instruct you on any particular detail or HTML feature that you’re interested in. *Note* I basically learned from reading and making my own pages and programs using the tutorials that I found online, and offline through books and webinars. [oXRavenXo]
Another way to “learn” HTML is simply to create your website using a web-authoring program, and examine the HTML code behind it. It may seem to be a bunch of scrambled text, but reading some of the tutorials will help you understand the layout of the page you created using that program (Web Page Builder of choice) , and possibly help you write your own page out. Or at least help you fully understand HTML, and why it's being used.
Do you Need To Learn It?
Strictly speaking, you don’t need to become an HTML expert to build and administer your personal or business(es) website. Many of the most popular tools for website construction include powerful capabilities (including many that most websites may never utilize). As an added benefit, some of these programs are available at no cost. Just being able to understand how the HTML is written by hand will allow you to troubleshoot when something happens. You won't be shelling out large sums of money to have a maybe a simple fix of your HTML page coding or panicing and deleting everything just to redo it. Not only is that time consuming, but costly. Remember; your page will still be viewed by many potential friends and customers. Changing your website or even deleting content may delay their return to you website. Loosing potential customers and possible future moderators. So learning a little about it won't hurt you, and won't kill your budget either.
Since the HTML that serves as the backbone of a website is basically just text, any text editor (including Microsoft’s Notepad) can be used to create a website. Even though writing HTML code directly in a text editor can eventually help you to better understand what’s going on “under the hood”, spending the time necessary to become a hardcore HTML coder might simply not be an option. Though learning HTML basics wouldn't be a bad idea.
In contrast, there are also popular programs that make it much easier to create your website layout and design through graphical user interface. These programs do the heavy lifting, and will automatically assemble the HTML code based on the design you make.
Rules-of-thumb for building a web page of your own:
1. Use text colors that complement your background color or image, yet provide enough contrast to make reading easy on the eyes. Red text on a green background, for example, is a no-no, even if you're dear old Santa Claus.
2. Avoid loud backgrounds. If you have one you really love and must use, use a table with a complementary table background color for the text area. You'll find table tutorials further along in the Web Design Tutorials section.
3. Don't make your pages more than 4 screens long. If someone has to click the scroll bar more than 4 times to get to the bottom of your page, it's too long. Too long of a page makes it load slower, it may not be completely indexed by search engines, and will look like too much work to read for many of your visitors to bother with.
4. Don't use too many graphics or too much animation on any one page. Visual clutter detracts from your message and can be confusing and disagreeable to your guest, which will make them leave as fast as they came. Graphics should serve to complement to your content, not as competition with it for your visitors' attention.
5. Avoid using Java applets on your index page and warn people if a link takes them to a page with Java on it. Java runs off of the viewing computer's memory resources, if it doesn't have enough memory or there are too many programs open using system resources, Java can easily freeze the browser or crash the computer. Folks won't be likely to come back if that happens.
6. If you use music on your page, there are three courtesies to observe:
* Many folks surf with their own listening preferences playing. If you don't provide a way to turn it off they will move on because your music and their program will both be playing at once. Ideally, don't autostart your sound file if it's more than a few seconds in length, give your guests the option of playing it.
* Don't loop music forever. It gets old fast if it's not your taste.
* Don't put the music reference in the code at the top of your page, especially if it's a large file. If it's downloading ahead of your other page components it can adversely affect your page's load time.
7. Every page on the Internet is considered a published intellectual work and afforded copyright protection unless it's declared as public domain. Before using graphics, textual content, or anything else from another web site be sure you have permission to use it. It's a lot easier to be caught than you may think, and fines and penalties can be over six-figures!
8. Never link directly to images or other files on another site with the intent to use them on your site. That means in your emails as well. In addition to the obvious copyright issues, calling files from someone else's web site to be used on your site is bandwidth theft, and it's very much illegal.
The fines for copyright and bandwidth theft are steep, and it's very easy to be caught. Each server (where web pages are stored) keeps a log of all file accesses. If you link directly to an image on someone elses server, that server records each time the image is called to your page. It's the only evidence needed in a court of law. You can read more about copyrights and bandwidth theft here.
9. For pages of mostly text it's considered the "best practice" to stick with a single background color, or at least a very simple background image without a lot of contrasts, or a left border image. Too complicated or detailed of a background image means that at some point the image design usually begins to interfere with the message. If the page isn't easy to read, many won't bother, no matter how appealing the content may be! Black text on a white background is considered the most professional look, and many studies have proven this color combination is the most readable.
Most of the information gathered is from BoogieJack.com [tutorials on HTML and JAVASCRIPT writing for your websites] Ask Yahoo, MemberSpeed.com, HTMLGoodies.com [Vince Barnes] And some of my experiences with HTML. Thank you for reading, Cheers!
Tags: HTMLbasics CGI XML ASP Raven Tutorial Introduction
