home // Programming // HTML & CSS
Building Web Pages with HTML and CSS
Source: www.dbmi.columbia.edu
File Size: 337.44 KB
Category: Programming
Last Download : 13 days 6 hours 09 minutes ago
Share this info:
Short Description: This tutorial presents an introduction to building web pages using HTML 4 and CSS. It is not ..... Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design. ...
Content Inside: Building Web Pages with HTML and CSS This tutorial presents an introduction to building web pages using HTML 4 and CSS. It is not meant to be a complete guide or reference, but rather it serves as a basic introduction to creating web pages. The Biomedical Informatics Technical Support team (BITS) put this tutorial together to assist new students. A Very Brief History of the World Wide Web and HTML We will not spend too much time going over the history of the Internet or the World Wide Web, however, it may be useful to trace a quick history and describe the original intent behind this Internet service. The history of the World Wide Web or the Web begins with the work of Tim Berners-Lee. The Web grew out of work that Berners-Lee was doing while at CERN during the 1980s. One of his early achievements was the creation of a notebook program ENQUIRE, which allowed for links between arbitrary nodes. Building upon this work, in March of 1989, Berners-Lee submitted the original proposal for an Information Management system. The goal was to build a linked information system to preserve and easily retreive information. To make this new system work, Berners-Lee proposed that this new system would make extensive use of Hypertext to link information across a web of information. The original proposal noted the importance of working within heterogeneous environments, emphasizing shared information by users of various systems using different browsers. In his conclusion to the original proposal, Berners-Lee noted "We should work toward a universal linked information system, in which generality and portability are more important than fancy graphics techniques and complex extra facilities." In a short period of time, the Web as an information and commerce tool has exploded to what one author describes as the Gutenberg press of our time. HTML: The Language of the Web HTML is the language that allows the web to work. HTML works because it does exactly what Berners-Lee argued for. It is platform independent and will work on any system that can read a text file. The support for links via the use of hypertext means that you can connect a visitor to any web page or other supported information on the Internet. Not all is perfect however. Heterogeneous environments mean that platforms are still unique, not everything will display in the same way on every system. Some of this is by design; your computer monitor can display much more detail than the small screen of a PDA or cell phone. Some of this is due to the choices made by various vendors looking to control how the World Wide Web works. Dealing with these imperfections over the past few years has been quite difficult. Complex pages usually have to be tested on many browsers to ensure proper compatibility. Standards exist, but vendor support is sometimes sketchy at best, particularly if you are stuck with an older browser. The choices you make in your design can minimize headaches by allowing older browsers to handle new features gracefully. The key is to balance the cutting edge technology with enough sound design choices to produce a page that is more than a simple set of compromises.
Advertiser