Overview of html
                     WWW/HTML Basics
CS 4173
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What is the WWW?
A distributed document delivery 
system
Uses a client-server model
Main presentation language is 
HTML
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Client-Server Model
Two processes (possibly networked):
 The client
 Sends requests to the server
 Blocks until reply is received
 The server
 Processes requests from clients
 Never blocks
 Can reply to several clients simultaneously
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HTML
Hypertext Markup Language
Intended to be maximally portable
 Logical markup
 Graceful degradation of presentation
An ideal promoted by early WWW
 Used to be more honoured in the breach
 Is it getting better now?
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Markup Languages
Markup:
 Embedded codes in documents
 Codes are called `tags’
 Codes
 Describe the structure documents
 Include instructions for processing
Markup language:
 Computer language for describing syntax of tags
 May be used with other tools to specify rendering
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Logical Markup
Logical markup:
 Describes parts of document
 Does not specify how to render
Example:
 This is very important
 This is very important
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Logical Markup 
Presentation is client’s `decision’
When client cannot present then 
there is graceful degradation
 
 Object example from Cougar
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Some history
Gopher & the Internet Superhighway
SGML
 GML + Charles Goldfarb = SGML
 eXtensible Markup Language
HTML
XML and XHTML
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Why HTML became XHTML
HTML was originally a SGML application
 Tags described the syntax
 A DTD could check the syntax
 Informal mapping from syntax to rendering
Multiple incompatible versions arose
 IETF moves at ’net speed not  web $peed
 Tag abuse was rampant in the ’net
 They were a plague unto the users
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Why HTML became XHTML 
(2)
If you think IMG is bad …
Big vendors (M$ and N$ mostly) agreed
 To start over
 To use eXtensible Markup Language
 A re-write of SGML emphasizing simplicity
 Carefully planned by CS savvy folks
 Includes hooks for future development
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XHTML Basics
Very few real changes from HTML
But more strict
All tags are in lowercase
All tags must be closed 
 Empty tags
 Paired tags
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XHTML Basics
3 Parts to an XHTML or HTML document
 DOCTYPE
 What DTD are you using
 Head
 Meta information
 Only  is required
 Body
 Text to render
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XHTML Document 
Structure
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XHTML Basics
Tags
 Elements
 Attributes
Entities
 ,&,‘ ’
 Ö,ð,÷,©, etc.
 See example at CS4173 website
Comments
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XHTML Tags vs. Elements
Tag is markup to represent an element
Logical vs. Presentation Elements
 TT        CODE, KBD, PRE?
 B/IT/U  EM/STRONG
Lists
 UL/OL
 DL
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XHTML Tags vs. Elements
Block-level and in-line elements
 TABLE, P, BLOCKQUOTE, DIV, etc.
 CODE, Q, H1, SPAN, etc.
Grouping Elements
 DIV
 SPAN
One-part elements
 BR, etc.
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XHTML Tags vs. Elements
Browser-specific tags
MARQUEE, BLINK, etc.
What happens when a browser 
doesn't recognize a tag?
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XHTML Basics
Tags may be nested but 
Tags may not overlap
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Overlap versus Nesting
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Links — Why The WWW Is 
HT
‘A’ element
 HREF  TITLE
 NAME  ID
 CLASS  STYLE
 REL
 Anchor Text
 TYPE
 TABINDEX
URIs and URLs
RFCs
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Where are the tools?
HTML Tidy
 /opt/bin/tidy on borg
The validator
 http://validator.w3.org/
 http://www.cs.dal.ca/validator?
 http://www.cs.dal.ca/validate?
 http://www.cs.dal.ca:81?
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XHTML/HTML Examples
XHTML element sampler 
XHTML sample template
Both in the examples section of the 
website
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For More About HTML
RFC 1866 (HTML 2.0) (at faqs.org)
Explains some of the philosophy behind HTML
HTML 4.01 (at W3C)
Last version of HTML
XHTML 1.1 (at W3C)
Modularized XHTML
So many choices!…
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Which Standard to Follow?
Minimal standard for this course is 
HTML 4.01 Transitional
Preferred standard is XHTML 1.0 or 
1.1
See Picking a Rendering Mode
 By Eric Meyer
 In the Readings part of the Resources
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Next Mission
•http://htmlcheatsheet.com/
•https://www.w3schools.com
•webcoursesbangkok.com/blog/teach-html
•https://codepen.io
•https://codesandbox.io
•https://glitch.com
•https://eymockup.com/
•https://fontsinuse.com/
•https://www.photoshopvideotutorial.com/
•https://validator.w3.org/
•https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_animatable
.asp
•https://fontawesome.com/
•https://tools.pingdom.com
•https://www.99effect.com/ 
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