HTML, XHTML, and the World Wide Web

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HTML, XHTML, and the World Wide Web

• John Sullivan

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The Internet, Intranets, and Extranets

• Internet the network of networks
• Intranets and extranets use same conventions of
  Internet, but are usually unconnected outside the
  institution.

3
In the Beginning

• Internet begin in the late 1960s as an experiment
  in the design of robust computer networks. The
  goal was simple. It was to construct a network
  of computers that could withstand the loss of
  several machines without compromising the ability
  of the remaining ones to communicate.
• The resulting network was ARPnet (Advanced
  Research Projects Agency network of the
  Department of Defense)
• Next high-speed modems for digital communication
  was needed
• Last open access
• Took off in the early 1990s

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HTML and the WWW

• Physicists at CERN, the European Particle Physics
  Laboratory released an authoring language and
  distribution system they developed for creating
  and sharing multimedia-enabled, integrated
  electronic documents over the Internet.
• OR HTML that enabled hypertext linking

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Talking the Internet Talk

• Every computer connected to the Internet has its
  own unique (IP) address
• The numbers format is defined by the Internet
  Protocol (IP), the standard
• An IP address is made up of four numbers, each
  less than 256, joined together by periods, such
  as 192.12.248.73
• However, people prefer names to numbers

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Recall the Internet is a Network of Networks

• It is divided into groups known as domains, which
  are further divided into one or more subdomains.
• You may choose a very common name for your
  computer, it becomes unique when you append all
  of the machines domain names as a period
  separated suffix, creating a fully qualified
  domain name.
• Example www.raritanval.edu
• Domain names must be registered and paid for
  through Internic.

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Clients, Servers, and Browsers

• The Internet connects two kinds of computers
  servers, which serve up documents, and clients,
  which retrieve and display documents for us
  humans.
• Things that happen on the server machine are said
  to be the server side
• Activities on the client machine occur on the
  client side
• Browsers clients talk to special web servers over
  the Internet to access and retrieve electronic
  documents.

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The Flow of Information

• All web activity begins on the client side
• When a user starts their browser, the browser
  starts loading a home page document from local
  storage or from a server over the network, such
  as the Internet.
• The client first consults a domain name system
  (DNS) server to translate the home page document
  servers name, such as www.raritanval.edu, into
  an IP address.
• This request (and servers reply) is formatted
  according to the dictates of the Hypertext
  Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard.
• The server spends most of the time listening to
  the network, waiting for document requests with
  the servers unique address.
• The user reads the document, selects a hyperlink
  to another document, and the entire process
  starts over.

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Beneath the WWW

• Diligent authors work locally off line to write
  and proof their documents before releasing them
  for general distribution.

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Tools for the Web Designer

• From Word processors to Authoring tools
• Front Page
• DreamWeaver
• Home Site
• Adobe Go Live
• Browers
• Netscape
• Microsoft
• Speciality Software - Plug-ins
• FireWorks
• Flash
• Shockwave

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Extended Toolkit

• Websites to other products and important
  information
• www.stars.com
• www.w3.org/MarkUp

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End

• John Sullivan
• RVCC
• Modified January 2005