Table of Contents
About
This tutorial is designed to teach HTML according to the most recent 1998 standard (HTML 4.01). The W3C recognizes two basic methods for using HTML:
- "Strict": a purist's interpretation of the language.
- "Transitional": a more relaxed interpretation that permits deprecated tags and attributes.
Most HTML tutorials and books available today (implicitly) endorse the "Transitional" interpretation. This tutorial, however, follows the "Strict" interpretation. This is not to say that deprecated tags don't have their time and place; they certainly do. So why teach "Strict" HTML, if it's more restrictive? Three reasons:
Purity. Strict HTML represents the way HTML is "supposed" to be, according to the W3C. This is another way of saying that Transitional HTML is a crutch, to be avoided whenever possible.
Of the three, I find this line of thinking to be the least persuasive. Yes, one should strive to avoid using deprecated concepts. But really, web design is about understanding your requirements and doing what works, not what some nice ladies and gentlemen in a cleanroom think is best for us. Do I use the
<font>tag? No. But do I think that the<font>tag is "foul"? Do I think that table-based designs are "evil"? Please.Parsimony. If you're writing a reference manual, you have to include everything and the kitchen sink. But if you're writing a tutorial, you cannot possibly be comprehensive. So the question is always, what to drop? You might as well throw out all the deprecated stuff; at least, that sounded like a reasonable starting point to me.
Again, this not to say that you shouldn't learn about the deprecated tags and attributes. They won't damn your soul to an eternity of torment (despite popular opinion to the contrary). I'm just choosing to leave them out of this particular tutorial, that's all.
Personal curiosity. In a sense, this tutorial is an experiment: can you teach HTML to novices as it is currently formulated by the W3C? It's not as straightforward as one might think. First of all, you are essentially forced to simultaneously cover CSS -- otherwise, you can't really do anything with your HTML. Second, an old-school HTML approach is often just plain simpler. (Quick, which one makes more intuitive sense --
align="center"orstyle="margin: auto;"? Take your time...)
Hence, this attempt to teach HTML 4.01 Strict and CSS2.0 in an integrated manner. Only time will tell if this approach makes sense. If you've worked through some of the sections, and you have feedback (negative or positive), let me know. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Before You Start: Notes on Older Browsers
Because tutorial does not teach deprecated HTML tags and attributes, it doesn't use them in its own coding either. What does that mean for you, the reader?
If you use Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6+, Mozilla, Opera 5+, Safari, or any other browser with reasonable standards compliance, you should be able to view this tutorial and use its examples with little trouble.
If you use Internet Explorer 4 or Netscape 4, you will encounter some formatting glitches when viewing this tutorial. The tutorial should still be readable, and you should be able to do many of the examples with little trouble. You might run into problems in the sections on margins, borders, padding, alignment, and positioning.
If you use Internet Explorer 3 or lower, Netscape 3 or lower, or a text-browser such as Lynx, the tutorial loses nearly all of its formatting. You will simply see a series of headings and paragraphs on a gray or white background. However, the tutorial should still be readable. As for the examples, you will only be able to do a limited set. Examples involving the
styleattribute will fail, as will nearly all the examples in the Intermediate section and up.
To check your browser version, go to your browser's Help
menu. You should find an "About..." option or a
"Read Me" document that provides this information.
Usage and Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
- You may copy, display, and distribute the material in this tutorial, as long as you provide me with credit.
- You may distribute derivative works, as long as those works are distributed under a license identical to the one that governs this tutorial.
- You may not use this work for commercial purposes, unless you get my permission.
Subsections
- FAQs
- Not yet implemented.
