h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What you need

“HTML”: HTML has been superseded by XHTML.


“Examples of editors are Dreamweaver, FrontPage, and GoLive.”: you mention three big expensive commercial packages, what about some of the less heavyweight free products?
(e.g. Netscape/Mozilla Composer, First Page 2000 or even the HTML editor that comes bundled with Open Office).

Getting Started

“The very first tag we'll need then, is the one that tells the browser where the HTML starts:
”: NO IT DOSENT, where is the element

“You can also get all the codes for symbols and punctuation from Visibone.”: would it not be better to link to <./>GuideML-Characters</.>


General

Why are all the elements in uppercase when they should be in lower case
(I know that mot browsers will parse uppercase BUT they should be lowercase.

Resources you should take a look at or link to…

A623765
A498945
A623666
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Sorry it took so long to get back to you; I've been getting settled into grad school. Now that I finally have some free time I can get back to this sorely neglected Uni Project...

- HTML vs XHTML

Yes, XHTML is becoming more and more common. However, I do not believe it has completely superceded HTML. Plain ol' HTML is still relevant and will be for a while yet. I notice there are currently no Guide entries or Uni Projects pending on XHTML- perhaps you could be the first..?

- WYSIWYG editors

Composer is a good suggestion; I'll include that in my edits. The others I listed because I write from my experience, limited though it may be. I've never heard of Open Office or First Page.

- Uppercase vs lowercase

I've never had a problem with browsers parsing uppercase, and it makes it easier to distinguish the tags and elements in the article.

- DOCTYPE

I'll add it in. The original tutorial I based this off is about 3 or 4 years old, when the DOCTYPE tag was not as widespread or important.

- Links

Thanks; I'll add them in.

I sugest including artilcle on both XHTML 7 accessibility in this article.

And as not everybody is made of money I suggest that you take a look at the other html editors I reccomended so readers have a choice of more than just one Free Editor
http://www.openoffice.org/about_us/openofficeintro.swf
http://www.evrsoft.com/

also take a look at what has been said over at
F75855?thread=209464

re: making your code example easy to see try using the tag or [lacing them in a text box (which would make them easier to cut & paste(which is why I believe they used in both the GuideML Library & the h2g2 Picture Library))

re: post 3 the "7" in the first line should be an "&"

XHTML is a replacement & supersedes html, what your doing here is the equivalent of trying to teach a bunch of Spanish Foreign language students Shakespearean English instead of modern English

Once again:

Re: standards compliance

I'll look at the compliance issue when I do the first set of revisions later tonight. However, I do tend to have the attitude of "as long as it displays properly in Netscape and IE, that's close enough for me". I'm not writing this entry for professional web page designers, just for hobbyists. Standards compliance could easily have a whole separate entry unto itself (and already does, I believe) so I'm not going to go too in depth with this article. Remember the scope of this article is for absolute rank beginners. As long as they get something up without any major errors in the major browsers, they can worry about the finer details of compliance later.

Re: XHTML vs HTML

Look, HTML is not completely antiquated. It is still perfectly valid and can be used to put together a simple web page. That is the scope of this article: *a simple webpage*. If you're so keen on XHTML go write an entry yourself on it. I'm not going to write about XHTML in this article and that's that.

Re: editors

HappyDude: I don't assume that everyone is made of money. I don't even *use* an editor myself. I just list the most common ones as examples; I'm not endorsing any of them. I'll throw a couple open-source ones in the mix to placate the OSS fans..

Honestly. I went through this same sort of runaround with the browser cookies entry. I worked in tech support both during and out of university- I learned that when you want to introduce a computer-related topic to novices, tell them just what they absolutely need to know at first then build on it later on. This entry is the just the basics- I'm leaving the more advanced material to get the in-depth attention it deserves in separate articles.

see my comments in the other thread.

I see that you have made changes so another quick review:

“Getting Started”

“HTML is written in "tags"” I always thought they were called elements?

Still no element?

“

Welcome to my web page!


Check here for more stuff coming soon.

”

shouldn't the text be encased in the paragraph element (I know you cover this later but this just stikes ma as padding, cover it here) ?

and you still link to "Visibone" instead of <./>GuideML-Characters</.>

I haven't the heart to go on...

Ok, most of the stuff I addressed in the other post. Also, I'm now updating my personal space to reflect exactly what I've done so far just so that you can see I'm not blowing you off and I really am working on it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/U187885

See?

as I posted earlier - I noticed you had made changes

I still think you should add put example code in text boxes to you "to do" list, and to labour a point ... XHTML!!!

As you are not familiar with a couple of the XHTML/HTML editors I have suggested please allow me to suggest a rewording of the relevant paragraph

An HTML editoralso known as a "WYSIWYG" editor, or "What You See Is What You Get" is like a word processor on the surface, but while you're typing ordinary text, the program is creating the HTML for you in the background. This saves a lot of time, since typing the same HTML tags over and over is tedious, and you can organize the tags by colours to make them easier to keep track of. They also contain useful tools such as checking for broken links in your site, spellcheckers, etc. Examples of editors are large commercial packages such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, and GoLive. There are also free editors such as Netscape/Mozilla Composer or Amaya. The OpenOffice free Office suit include a HTML editor and EvrSoft First Page 2000 is a text editor optimised for editing HTML. Despite their advantages, HTML editors aren't perfect so they will often make mistakes in their HTML, and sometimes the files they create are not universally compatible with other editors or even other browsers. It can take a while to learn a particular editor&#8217;s interface (how to do what), and the interface will vary from one editor to the next so knowing one doesn&#8217;t mean you will necessarily pick up another easily.

"To comparison shop, go to Free Web Space for a listing of over 400 hosts comparing these features"

a: sounds like an advert
b: the site (Free Web Space) is over laden wiv adverts

Personally speaking I would say the article would be improved by losing this link.


The comments about adverts also go for webmonky, why not replace with a similar site that is not quite so over laden wiv adverts (i.e one designed for European taste)?
e.g. www.echoecho.com

"Paid hosts and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also are an option. These include AOL, Earthlink, MSN, and many others. Prices vary, but since you are paying for the hosting there is no advertising put in your page. You can keep the account for as long as you keep paying them. The amount of space offered can vary, but it is often unlimited. Compare Web Hosts will let you search by many different criteria, including price, storage space, what advanced features they have/support, etc."

This is a UK orientated site (all be it one with many users from a far) so why link to a bunch of US ISP's

And once again the "Compare Web Hosts", way to many adverts for European taste (I really do think there is a strong case for moderating links to web pages with more adverts than content), lose the link.

Here is my suggestion (feel free to ignore it) as to how this paragraph might be done;

In the UK many domestic Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) provide free web space but this not always the case elsewhere in the world but it is worth checking. Alternatively a quick web-search will reveal a plethora of advert supported free Internet host (such as Geocities, Portland, Tripod or Xoasis</LINK&gt which should meet the needs of a basic web-site alternatively you could look at a Public Access Unix Server.

If you require more advanced features or your own domain then you may be better off looking at a paid for host. Prices vary, but since you are paying for the hosting there is no advertising put in your page. You can keep the account for as long as you keep paying them. The amount of space offered and the bandwidth available can vary, but it is often unlimited.


I don't mean to overburden you but I'm not going to be around much for the rest of the week (stop dancing )

-revised names of free editors
-removed references to any particular ISP or host
-will keep the compare web hosts link. ads are a fact of life; this is still a useful tool despite the ads.

Need to get ready for class. Will do more later.

ads are a fact of life - for americans maybe, see any adds on this site?

your right but this site has to many AND al the host it list are US based - I still say lose it (but that is just an opinion)


still don't like "the OpenOffice which includes an editor, and EvrSoft First Page 2000"

I chose my wording so people would realize that Open Office is an "Office Suite" that includes a HTMl Editor and that First Page 2000 (Evrsoft is the compant that Produces it) isnt a WYSIWYG Editor.

And I'm still not keen on the hosting section.

'Fraid I had to give up on the Uni Project. It would have needed a major overhaul. I've just started grad school and don't have the time to re-do it then deal with another round of revisions.

Since I didn't have an official sub-editor yet, who else should I notify about this so the topic can be up for grabs?