Welcome!

This will be where I post readings, assignments, and information about the class. The only exceptions will be copyrighted readings, and the gradebook, both of which will be in myCourses.

Use the menu at the top to navigate to specific sections (like the syllabus and the course outline), and the calendar on the left to find materials related to a specific class meeting date.

Course Overview, Web Standards, CMS Systems

We'll review the course web site, including the syllabus and the course outline. We'll also do introductions, and talk about my expectations of students in this class (including a discussion of prerequisite classes and knowledge).

Then we'll talk about web standards--HTML, XHTML, and CSS. We'll cover the HTML standards development process, existing HTML and XHTML standards, problems with existing standards, and browser support for standards. We'll also discuss the issues surrounding separation of presentation and content, and the importance of CSS in standards-based, flexible, and accessible web development.

Finally, we'll discuss the use of weblogs and other content management systems, both in this class and in web site implementation more broadly.

Readings on Weblogs and CMS

Some background readings on blogs and content management systems.

• Wikipedia entries on blogs, wikis, and content management systems.
• Chapter 2: The Read-Write Web (PDF) from Dan Gillmor's book We, the Media
• Blogs open doors for developers (CNet)
• Why Content Management Fails

Readings on XHTML and Web Standards

• How to Grok Web Standards
• Why We Won't Help You
• The Business Value of Web Standards
• Wikipedia entry on XHTML
• Better Living Through XHTML
• Fix Your Site With The Right DOCTYPE

Optional:

• CSS Intro (and other sections of the introduction to Westciv's CSS Guide)

Class Weblogs

Each of you will have a weblog created for this class. I'll be sending instructions to each of you regarding login instructions. You should log in and configure your weblog by the end of the first week of class.

I expect you to post a weblog entry for each studio exercise assigned in class, whether or not you choose to attend the in-class studio session. The entry should be posted no later than midnight on Saturday of the week in which the exercise is assigned. If there are multiple exercises, you can combine the writeups and links into one entry, or split them into multiple entries.

To receive a B on the weblog portion of your grade, your entries must be complete (including descriptions of the exercise and links to the completed work) and posted in a timely fashion. To receive an A your entries must also be well-written, and appropriately organized with categories (at a minimum you should have a specific category for in-class exercises).

Useful Firefox Extensions

I would strongly encourage you to install the very useful Web Developer's Extension, an extension for both Firefox and Mozilla. I'll demo this in class.

While the Web Developer's Extension does provide options for validating HTML and CSS documents, a better option for quick validation information is the HTML Validator extension, which I'll also demo in class. This is a very useful extension to install on your own computer.

Optional Readings on XHTML vs HTML

There are a lot of debates and discussions about XHTML vs HTML. Here are some selected readings on the topic for those who are interested in the pros and cons of each.

• HTML vs. XHTML on standards compliant websites (Roger Johansson, 19 June 2006)
• HTML or XHTML? (Robert Nyman, 2 November 2005)

These articles, by Mark Pilgrim, are still among the very best on the subject, despite the fact that they were published over four years ago.

• Semantic Obsolescence (Mark Pilgrim, 13 January 2003)
• Eddies in the Space-Time Continuum (Mark Pilgrim, 14 January 2003)
• Won't Somebody Please Think of the Gerbils? -- includes numerous links to other related resources (Mark Pilgrim, 29 August 2003)