THE HTML 4.0 SOURCEBOOK

Book Content

The book has eleven chapters -- this Web site contains five appendices (A--F) and other additional material that compliments this printed content.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the HyperText Markup Language

An introduction to the basic principles of HTML, with examples.

Chapter 2: HTML and Document Design

More advanced HTML page design issues, with an emphasis on designing coherent, easy to navigate document collections.

Chapter 3: Graphics and Images in HTML Documents

An overview of issues related to using graphics in Web pages, covering graphics formats, limitations of computer graphics systems, and the construction of image mapped images.

Chapter 4: The Design of Web Collections

A discussion of the theory of hypertext design, with comparison to print publishing. This chapter looks at several different design approaches (e.g. linear and tree-like) and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each. The chapter also examines issues associated with maintaining a Web site.

Chapter 5: Strategic Web Site Design

Web design always proceeds with a goal in mind, such as advertising, marketing, customer support, or Web-base commerce. This chapter examines how Web site design can be optimized to support different applications such as these.

Chapter 6: HTML in Detail

A short, technical discussion of the rules of HTML document structure, followed by a detailed description of the most widely supported HTML 4.0 elements. This chapter and chapter 7 serve as a reference for the use of HTML 4.0.

Chapter 7: Advanced HTML -- Proprietary Extensions and New Features

Covers advanced HTML 4.0 features (FRAMEs, OBJECT, TABLE and FORM extensions, etc.) that are not widely supported, as well as new HTML 4.0 features such as scripting (JavaScript), cascading style sheet support, and internationalization. This chapter also describes proprietary HTML elements (e.g., BGSOUND, BLINK, SPACER, etc.) supported by some browsers. Also discussed are recently developed technologies, such as XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, and MathML, the mathematical markup language.

Chapter 8: Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)

An overview of URLs, explaining the syntax used to construct URLs, along with a description of most current URL forms (e.g.: http:, mailto:, data:, clsid:, javabean:, etc.)

Chapter 9: The HTTP Protocol

A detailed description of the HTTP protocol, including HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1.

Chapter 10: Data Processing on an HTTP Server

A description of data processing on Web servers, focusing on CGI, the Common Gateway Interface. This chapter provides a detailed specification of CGI, with examples.

Chapter 11: CGI Examples, Programs, and Tools.

Expands upon chapter 10, using specific CGI programming examples. This chapter also lists some convenient CGI utility programs, as well as useful CGI programming libraries.

Additional Material On The Web Site

The Web site contains information about useful Web management and development tools, along with appendices describing. MIME encoding, character sets, language codes, color indexes and other issues. Please visit the site contents page to see the extra material available from this Web site.

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ISBN 0-471-25724-9
656 Pages
April, 1998