Fringewood News   Mac Chat #5.08


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Nubies' Corner

     HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard for internet presentation. What began as a rather crude markup (one of the more simple layout protocols) is turning into quite a system with many players striving to make their products and protocols the next internet standard. What began as a simple way of transferring information between research facilities has blossomed into one of the most confusing collection of formats and processes in the world today.

     The controlling force on what is considered HTML and what is not is the WWWC (World Wide Web Consortium), better known as W3C. These are the folks who look closely at web technology, and decide exactly what technologies are supportable by both the tried and true systems and the cutting edge of digital design. Today's standard for the web is HTML 4.01, which was established 12-18-97. Also note that XHTML 1.0 is a part of 4.01 upgrade. These are the standards on which a browser is designed in order to attain compliance.
     Microsoft has had a long running feud with the W3C over browser (IE) design. Consequently HTML designed toward IE 4 or higher has a high chance of not being standard code and possibly lacking access to other browsers that do comply. For this reason, those concerned with accessibility of the site should find it questionable to solely use IE to preview web pages for compatibility to W3C standards. There are plenty of browsers that comply for accurate previewing. Sites that are designed to IE stand a strong chance of not being available to other browsers, limiting accurate access to the site and giving the address a bad name among a percentage of the visitors. Then again, there are those around who don't care how you see their site.......
     (Please note that I am not saying that IE should not be used as a browser. My reference above applies only to its use as a sole preview browser for website design when universal accessibility is a concern. Personally, I find all browsers lacking to some degree or fashion.)

     HTML is a very complex protocol today, with so much new potential being developed. There are many variations, and added to them are server side processing (WebObjects, NetFusion, Java, CGI.......) and server side protocols (asp, jsp, phi, mev, ez, and always new ones jumping out of the woodwork), and client-side protocols (shtml, httpr, xml, sml, java, css, and more). No one person knows it all and everyone involved with it is consequently a specialist.
     The complexity grows from the dissatisfaction that the internet does not work like paper. Those who grew up designing for set parameters find a hard time dealing with lack of carry-over to the net. The need to design for paper has developed CSS (cascading sheets), web fonts, Flash, SVG and other vector based graphics for the net. Scalability is the current rage, how to get a website to come out the same scene, no matter how big the window is, and still be usable.


     In the end, it still remains a simple markup language that has been beefed up for multimedia.

     As you can see, I'm fond of using line breaks<BR> instead of paragraphs.<P></P>. HTML is a very basic machine code for placing content within a window. The big trick is the content, format, and server interactivity (if available) taking place within the simple framework.
     Content is the whole effect, graphics, animations, sound, applying the elements into a whole presentation. Content speaks the resonance that we communicate when we actually do communicate. This is the artform of web site production. It is a philosophy of the web that leads us where we go, what we seek. We seek that which supports our interests. The trick of being something on the net is appealing to a specific interest that best reflects the interest. These are the sites that get hits. Taking the philosophy and the understanding and manipulating the presentation through the supported formats.
     Format is taking the content and making it adhere to the language specifications. (My, is this a place to get hopelessly lost......) It is all the supporting application editors, such as Photoshop, Flash, RealProducer, Cleaner, and targets like web palette, embedded streaming, and so very much more. Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate is the name of the game, and diving in and doing is the only means of getting there. Format takes a few years to get down an effective basic on which to build in the years ahead. Yet it remains simple if one remembers that the interest resonance defines the parameters. In short, publish to the best effect of the content without leaving the audience behind.
     Server interactivity requires an investment, it doesn't come free. Nor does it come easy. Server systems are the domain of the elite, those who can afford to run a full server and have full control of the content. 99% of such sites are commercial, and most use the functionability to promote revenue, such as shopping carts, user info definition, server log analysis, and more. In the rare cases where it is used as a user interface, the possibilities are high in potential, at least in terms of when they're affordable. There are many possibilities, but they generally don't come cheap, especially as you begin to approach the cutting edge. Design (engineering) services get pricey on the edge.

     Basic HTML is not rocket science. If it were, there would be far fewer web pages on the net. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors make basic HTML a fairly painless task, though it can certainly be tedious at times. Learning to upload via browser or ftp is a basic skill for placing web pages where desired (and allowed). There are permissions set for entering ftp, but other than that, it's just another network connection. You move one set of files to an online mirror remote location, so that what tests on the desktop will also test on the server's mirror.
     There are two main ingredients to a web site, universal access, which relates to sending no one away disappointed at the door, and KISS (keep it simple, stupid). The rest is resonance in a very simple and very complex framework, and the $ to power it.




Software

     BBEdit is the text/html editor of choice for many web authors, but it has many other uses as well. It will open any file, allowing for inspection of code in application and other resource bearing files and data in any file with a data fork. It can write code for Perl. It can clean up line ordered e-mail into fully wrappable text. It can create stationary files for creating forms to be used again and again. It has so many uses and works seamlessly with a number of powerhouse applications that any Mac user should not go without it.

     Bare Bones Software offers two versions of BBEdit, the free Lite version and the full version, which is one of the best bargains out there. BBEdit has been around for almost a decade, being established in 1993, and its first product was BBEdit. In that time, they have established one of the most loyal followings in Mac software history. Those who use it can't seem to live without it.
     And many software designers realize its place and design their software to work seamlessly with BBEdit. For instance, Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Dreamweaver Ultradev work seamlessly with BBEdit's HTML features, allowing for direct code writing in BBEdit, while offering the functions of Dreamweaver to the same document. CGI writers love BBEdit for working seamlessly with MacPerl. The advantage here is that it allows for design by the primary software, that can/will overwrite original syntax, and BBEdit, which won't overwrite syntax in the code. This allows for tweaking that goes contrary to editor syntax (no matter how good, no editor can know all possible code.) In other words, BBEdit allows for "de-idiot proofing" the editor, and this is one of the aspects that has made it a long time favorite HTML editor for Mac.
     Flexibility is BBEdits most noticeable trait. As I stated, it will open any file on a Mac that the Finder can present it. It can read text, word process, organize and sort, look at code, check prefs, author scripting (direct Script Editor interface for AppleScript) and is scriptable itself, works seamlessly through Internet Config. allowing direct FTP, preview, browsing, e-mail, and lots more, author PDF and postscript, and on and on and on. This application is more in touch with the workings of the Mac on which it sits than anything else outside of the System Folder. It is the consummate native text editor for the Mac, doing everything Simple Text should do and then some.

     It's not AppleWorks. It does not excel in word processor interface to help a user see a finished paper product before it's printed. It doesn't have the vector art section nicely at hand. Not that it isn't capable of this, but the interface is set up for a no nonsense code writing environment. AppleWorks can not convert tab delimited text to HTML tables, regardless of how good its XTND html conversion may be. BBEdit does it in a single command. BBEdit is not set up for word processing as much as it is set up for text manipulation. It picks up where the word processors leave off and never stops going.
     The freeware Lite version lacks much of the scripting interface: HTML, Perl, AppleScript, etc. But it has all the same inspection capabilities and text functions, as well as Internet Config access. For the beginner, it is a good place to start the habit. It's even handy for odd jobs when BBEdit is a little too bulky for the chore. It comes with PPC and Carbon versions, ready for whatever environment it is destined. And when scripting becomes part of the processors function, the full version is worth far more than they charge.



 

 

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