Other Issues

Is there a better way--HTML editors and converters

Matters of StYLe

Good HTML...

Featuring

Why write good HTML?
How do we write good HTML?
How do we know if we succeeded?

Why Write Good HTML?

1. There is an aesthetic pleasure in doing so.

2. We DON'T know what browser is looking at the document.
   1. With good HTML, the document ought to at least display.

   2. With good HTML, it might even look the way it ought.

   3. With good HTML, even text-only browsers will work!

3. When someone copies your page, they will at least be starting with a good document

[end of document]

How Do We Write Good HTML?

1. Avoid overlapping tags: e.g., DON'T

   <em>this text has <strong>overlapping</em> tags</strong>
   instead, use:
   <em>this text doesn't have</em> <strong>overlapping tags</strong>

2. Avoid character tags embedded within other character tags: e.g., DON'T

   <em>this text has <strong>embedded character tags</strong></em>
   instead, use:
   <em>this text has no</em> <strong>embedded character tags</strong>

   Character tags are those which define fonts

3. Embed only anchors and character tags within other tags (other than lists and tables): e.g., DON'T

   <em>there is a paragraph<p> tag embedded here</em>
   or, another example:
   <strong>
<dl>
<dt>this is an indented
<dd>list
</dl></strong>
   instead, use:
   <em>there is a paragraph</em><p><em>tag here</em>
   or, for the other example:
   <dl>
<dt><strong>this is an indented</strong>
<dd><strong>list</strong>
</dl>

4. Avoid white space between tags and included text: e.g., DON'T

   <a href="mypage.html"> this links to my page </a>
   instead, use:
   <a href="mypage.html">this links to my page</a>

5. Follow all hyperlinks in a document to be sure that they work (is this obvious?)

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How Do We Know if it's Good HTML?

Use

HTML Validation Services:

the Suite of Validation Suites

Advantages:

Easy to use
On-line help guide to try and decypher errors

Disadvantages:

Requires that the page to be checked be on a HTTP server

To use:

Give one of the suites the URL of your page, see what happens!

or

HTML Checkers:

htmlchek

Advantages:

Don't have to have page on a HTTP server
No reliance on network speed

Disadvantages:

Unix based--therefore, powerful & esoteric
May be easier with just the "awk" script and Gavin's checkhtml front-end

To use:

type checkhtml myfile.html

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Is there a Better Way?

Featuring...

HTML editors
HTML converters

HTML editors

Advantages of HTML editors:

you don't have to learn or remember all of the HTML that goes into the pages that you are building.

Disadvantages of HTML editors:

you are limited to the HTML coded into them, and lose both control over what they do to your HTML after you've entered it and direct control of the appearance of your page.

HTML converters

There are a growing number of HTML converters, which change

LaTeX
Microsoft Word
WordPerfect
and many other

Advantages of converters:

They're easy!
You don't have to learn all of the nuts and bolts of HTML
You can convert existing documents (relatively) painlessly into HTML

Disadvantages of converters:

Word processors do far more than HTML can--therefore, you are at the whim of the converter for what you get as HTML.

you are limited to the HTML coded into them, and lose both control over what they do to your file and direct control of the appearance of your page.

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Matters of STyLe

Some thoughts:

Large Graphics may take ages to load

Web Surfers rarely scroll

(so put links and important stuff at the top of the page)

Eschew Verbosity

Put information on the WWW that isn't already there

(or that is unique to you)

For further stylistic thoughts, see:

CERN's Style Guide
Jonathon Cohen's Elements of HTML Style
Sun's Style Guide
Some Bad Style Examples
and
NCSA's list of style guides

[table of contents]

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last modified on 16 May 1996