How 2 Web!!
by Kayvey
::phew:: i just hadda figger out something new fer myself! {:/
lotta stuf out there.. oh well.. i just want to make something
to get someone to square one.
the following tiny piece of code:
<a href = "web.html">web</a>
is contained in my front page html document and provides a link to this
page. notice yer 'Address' box in the browser. SOMEWHERE it says this
URL which is http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~kayve/web.html. now if u got here via
my home page...
(feel free to click
that link or the
other
link i just made (sheesh i am dwiving myself kwazzy now! }:/ )
note how the 'web.html' part of the URL magically DISAPPEARS!!
umm..
at least it does on MY puter!
{:/ sheesh.. this is the thing about web publishing.. u never know
what something is going to look like this place or that,
consarnt {:(.. the deally bobber i had to mess with is this:
see that code up there? u know what? that sort of wasn't trivial
to make happen. the deal is this: mostly, html files just literally
splat out there just how u write them.. they call that
WYSIWYG for "what u c is what u get".. umm.. but u know what..
i guess that ain't the way i do it. i use an 'old fashioned'
character based interface directly to my UNIX account with the
vi editor. that's they way i do it. u can edit pages OFFLINE
on a mere PC.. but fooiesville (actually PC's rn't so MErE.. they
CAN be servers.. but only if u know what yer doing.. like my
friend
steve
who lives in
downpatrick, northern ireland) see like right now.. i am using
windows telnet to port to itsa. go start->run->telnet (yer host name)
u know if yer email is me@(yer host name) that is what u do..
umm.. otay.. i have THAT window open and i just learnt something
new :w in the ex editor and i can type
(::pausing with esc-:w::)
then refresh the browser and it's all there fer the world to see
because i am working on a file that is served online with its
permissions set. okay.. the main way i learnt to do what i
know how 2 do is thru the browser view->source. this pops up
a notepad instance containing the text that is the html file
of the current page. do that and notice the three differnt ways
i linked to my home page! note that so far.. for the most part,
the view source looks a whole hell of a lot like the web page,
other than the colors.. because all i am doing is writing and writing
and writing {:}
otays.. so now if u viewed the source.. the FIRST line should
look like the follows:
<HTML><head><title height = 0></title></head>
see.. now i just had to do my trick agin.. that is i had to type in
< in order to get the "<"'s to show.. 'cause u see that little
deally bobber is danged important to any doo dad who decodes an
html (or xml.. i think xsl too) file this is a SIGNAL.. we r
ENTERING code.. sort of like being in vi and hitting esc to get
into command mode.. the ">" (i didn't need any trick there. umm.
if u hit "i" twice to get into insert mode in vi.. then u just type
an "i" the second time.. same goes for the ">" because i am just
in sort of "edit" mode for HTML right now happily typing away.
i think these deally bobbers r called "tags." so the FIRST tag
is an HTML tag. i am not even really sure if this foyst line is
necessary.. but it's in here.. i just copy old pages and tweak
them to make new pages.. what it is saying is pretty simple..
"this is an HTML file" i guess if this were an XML file it
would read <XML> instead of <HTML>. next is the compound
Head tag. umm.. okay.. now there is another deally bobber..
remember the foyst bit of code up above? just a sec..
<a href = "web.html">web</a>
otay.. so THAT was what is called an "anchor" tag. it is a general term
designating the way the web is tied down at all its little vertices.
the simplest way that an anchor would be would be <a>stuf</a>
but i am not sure u see it that way heh {:} i just tried that..
i don't think it woyked.. see that brings us to a NEW concept..
some tags r stand alone.. like <br> (which by the way litter
dis freek.) no attributes.. just a simple little function
(carriage return). but ANCHOR.. now it has a BEGIN tag and an
END tag.. the END tag is the thing that looks like </a>..
"end anchor." always.. the "</" signifies the begining of
a defintion of the END of something.. for example ANOTHER open-close
tag pair i use a lot is font.. so
<font (..git to dis innabit) >
stuff i am typing now would be influenced by the font but.. after
having an end tag, i.e. </font> now the stuff i am typing NOW
is NO LONGER influenced by that font tag. shootski.. i just realized..
am i supposed to CLOSE my body?? {:} heh..
steve
was complaining
about not closing tags {:}..
anyhoo.. so also.. tags will have attributes inside the opening..
i guess usually they don't have any attributes in the closing..
that MIGHT be sort of stoopid.. but u never know.. e.g. in c++
we know sometimes we write code in the DESTRUCTOR of an instance
of some object. so.. lets talk about the SECOND line of this
file which follows:
<body topmargin = 0 marginheight = 0 bgcolor = "#cc99cc" >
otay. another piece of something u'd NEVER know about until u
did a view-->source. what does this all mean? well, umm..
it can, and often DOES mean that someone is FUTILELY trying
to control the look and feel of their web page (with topmargin and marginheight?.. ) oh well.. whatever on that.. DO like bgcolor, though (as u can see from my various subpages..) i got this particular color from
steve's (who, by the way, u can chat with realtime from that link i keep sticking in yer face)
color codes
representing a tiny fraction of the total possible
16777215 colors definable by the allotted 6 hexadecimal worth of memory allotted to the function. these colors r 'browser safe' or some such.. i know i have pooped out using the
color mixer
i made for a java class on various occasions, having look and feel SERIOUSLY divergeant from puter to puter (of course that was mainly on lara's old Win95 machine).
&
color codes
g
dood
You can email me with questions:
Hi Kayvey!