Current Revision: 1.0 Alpha 2, February 1998
Last Revision: 1.0 Alpha 1, September 1997
This is written for a variety of people. Web designers, authors, and masters are encouraged to read. This book is very useful for the beginning HTML author. I have geared the book toward both groups. I know, though you won't admit it, that even the experienced web persons will learn something from this book. I have been all of these people at some point, so I will try to focus on all of your needs.
This is a compilation of issues that I deem important to the function of a successful web. I will attempt to show you how HTML is meant to be implemented. I focus on design issues, maintenance, formatting, and accessibility. Unlike many similar guides, I will try to offer an unbiased and rounded view. I do not focus on any particular browser or editor. However, I may mention examples using one or another. I do focus on how to write your documents so that every browser can properly use them. Also, I cover ways to improve the longevity of data within your HTML documents.
I have formed these opinions from three years of studying ideas, studying research, fielding guesses, forming and studying theories, and analyzing my personal experience. I have been studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Universal Design (UD) since early 1997. I am by no means an expert in the design area, however, I am learning proper design quickly. Now that I understand proper HTML usage, good design seems unavoidable. I do like to consider myself an expert HTML author. I have made all of the mistakes. It was a very treacherous and sometimes embarrassing path to where I am now.
I was fortunate enough to land on the web at a critical moment in history. I got my first Internet connection in the middle of 1994. This was the point just before Netscape Navigator was released. The web was a rather uncluttered place. There were many new things happening, but, nothing seemingly spectacular. NCSA Mosaic was the coolest web browser on the web. There was a new indexing spider that was called The Web Crawler. Two guys had started a collection of their favorite links which they called Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle or Y.A.H.O.O. for short. What you must understand about The Web of 1994 was that it was not complete. HTML was a standard, but, it was only a beginning.
HTML was designed as a simple means to convey the meaning of one's ideas. HTML documents were never meant to have any bearing on the visual or aural representation of the data. If HTML described the appearance of the data, then the data would tend to rely on the visual information. In many cases, the reliance on visual data excludes people from understanding the rest of the document. Desktop Publishing, for the web, wasn't really a priority. The people in charge of the web standards were busy people. They had been working on ways to improve visual rendering from the day that HTML had been envisioned. Mosaic had some style features built in to allow you limited control over visual rendering. All of the pages, back then, were dull grey with black text and blue links. Many had images. We all knew that the web was not very mature, yet. Many early web authors knew what HTML was and how it worked. Most people had a clear understanding of why HTML looked so dull. The browser was why HTML looked so dull, not HTML itself. Browsers were very lacking in their representation of the data contained within the document. The tragedy of HTML is that a certain company took advantage of the lack of visual formatting capabilities by adding proprietary extensions to HTML. These extensions made it possible to add all kinds of neat stuff to documents and nearly every web author used them. Many authors still use these extensions. Sounds like a great idea to add features. The problem is that these extensions violate the very principals of HTML by adding visual formatting directly into the document. As predicted, nearly every HTML document became reliant on the visual information contained within them excluding millions of people from the knowledge within those documents. With the release of HTML 4.0, the world is reborn into the roots of HTML. Finally, responsible web authors have the ability to create beautiful documents without corrupting the information within that document. Soon, there will be style sheets that allow an author to add nuances for aural, Braille, as well as, visual users.
Many of today's web designers don't know what HTML is or how it works.
What they think they know is that when you want to make something bold you tag it with <strong> or worse <b>. I will show you what is wrong with thinking this way. I will show you how very simple, yet powerful, concepts are what make HTML stronger than any other hypertext language ever created. Some will have you believe that HTML is weak and limited. I will persuade you that it is neither. HTML is the greatest advance in the 30 years of computing since hypertext was first used.