British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Business and Media

Introduction to the Internet and HTML Unit1–1 British Columbia Institute of Technology School of Business and Media MDIA 1205: Web Design Technologies 1: Publishing on the Internet and Intranets If you don’t know much about HTML, then all of this will be fairly meaningless to you at this stage, as you will be learning these new standards from the start. If you have some experience with HTML, then please read these notes carefully so we are all on the same page. Unit 1: Introduction to the Internet and HTML NOTE: When you open this PDF file, click on the Bookmark icon in the left sidebar to display a Table of Contents listing for this file. Expand the index as needed. Click on any topic to go straight to that page. Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader, which you can download from https://get.adobe.com/reader/. Best Practices — Consistency in HTML Syntax Style A learner attempting to research HTML syntax on the Internet could quickly become confused with seemingly inconsistent rules relating to some areas of coding. This has come about because of changes in direction in HTML coding standards. In December 1999, Version 4.01 of the HTML specification was issued and it was thought that this would be the last HTML specification to be written. This was followed by the XHTML 1.0 specification, which became a standard in 2007 and was intended to be moving towards XML with syntax criteria that were very strict. Therefore, the direction of Web syntax development changed again starting in 2010, moving toward a new HTML5 specification which is easier to use and yet more powerful than either HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0. While some parts of the HTML5 specification have not yet been approved, all modern browsers comply with the basic aspects of the specification, and that is all you will require in this course. By the time you finish this course, the entire specification may have become the last official standard. BCIT 04/02/20 MDIA 1205: Web Design Technologies 1 Introduction to the Internet and HTML Unit1–2 As educators, your instructors believe that it is important to always use “Best Practices” — meaning that we should know the direction in which syntax development is heading and attempt to follow those standards right from the beginning of our courses. Therefore, as you move through your course notes and begin authoring your Web pages, always be aware that you will be expected to use the style recommended by your instructors so that your pages will display “good markup” — which means it should validate correctly as HTML5. You will see notes related to consistency in HTML syntax style throughout your course notes, and you will need to pay particular attention to these and construct your code accordingly. NOTE: Validators do not always flag as errors some items that we consider to be “Best Practices.” A. Objectives Upon completion of this unit students will be able to: • describe the origins of the Internet, • explain what HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is and how it originated as the language of the Web, • outline the basic structure of HTML5 documents, • organize your files and set up your HTML editing tools, • define and use the fundamental HTML5 tags for text manipulation, • create an HTML5 page using basic text styles, • hand code your first Web page in HTML5, • detail text style tag nesting, • describe the encoding of special characters (such as ©), • deal with special characters in HTML5, and • describe the importance of HTML validators (and use them). B. What is the Internet? 1. Some History The Internet began its life at the United States Department of Defense in 1969. It was seen as a solution to a “Cold War” problem — how to communicate with other departments after a nuclear attack. The government wanted a reliable communications link between its military officers, defense contractors, and the universities. The remainder of this page has been intentionally left blank. BCIT 04/02/20 MDIA 1205: Web Design Technologies 1 Introduction to the Internet and HTML Unit1–3 The first network was a serial link — information traveled along one route from station to station. If one path were to be disabled (we use two disabled paths in the illustration). The effected station would be cut off from the network and could not receive or transmit any data. To solve this problem, a team of researchers conceived an idea where installations could be linked like a fish net or spider’s web (hence the name “Web” — usually capitalized as a short form for World Wide Web). In this illustration the former isolated station gets its data from another path. This meant there could be numerous routes to and from any station. If one route were disabled, the information could simply follow another route to its destination. This original network was called Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). This network used a common set of communication protocols called TCP/IP. A protocol is a set of rules for digital communication. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) converts messages into chunks or “packets” of information and reassembles these at the destination. IP (Internet Protocol) takes care of the addressing, making sure each packet gets to its correct destination. NOTE: When you set up your computer e-mail or Internet access, you are normally asked for TCP/IP data. That is exactly the same communications protocol we are talking about here. BCIT 04/02/20 MDIA 1205: Web Design Technologies 1 Introduction to the Internet and HTML Unit1–4 In the mid 1980s, the US National Science Foundation provided funding for research and the creation of academic networks, linking them throughout the United States via a high-speed network entitled NSFNet (National Science Foundation Network). This communication system also used the TCP/IP protocols and, in fact, we still use them on the Internet today. NSFNet developed a set of rules and regulations for using the network which became known as AUP (Acceptable Usage Policies). Some of these regulations included restricting extensive “for profit” and business use. However, the AUPs did not specifically ban the use of the network by commercial companies, and many businesses began providing technical support to online research companies and academic institutions. As use of the network grew, more and more companies pushed the boundaries on the educational provisions of the AUP and began commercial transactions. Because there were no laws governing the Internet, its popularity as a means of expression also grew. It has become the one place where anything might be posted. Several years ago, the US congress voted “NO” to a “no sex” Internet bill that would have seen the posting of anything sex-oriented as a federal offense. Of course, this brought up questions about “Big Brother” controlling the population and problems as to what should be done about safe-sex education and related health issues emerged. Today, the Internet remains one of the few public information networks which is relatively free of regulations — where freedom of speech is the first right of every user. As well as the commercial potential, many people discovered that e-mail (electronic mail) was quicker and easier than sending letters and memos, and this use grew faster than any other application. By 1981, a new host was being added to the network every 20 days or so. In 1987, there were over 10,000 hosts (computers serving information). In the next few years, commercial Internet providers would begin providing access to the Internet for a fee. These companies eventually formed CIX (Commercial Internet eXchange) which allowed them to provide information between themselves, without having to abide by the AUPs of NSFNet. The Internet of today was born. In Canada, NetNorth and CDNNet were the basis for a Canadian Internet network, eventually merging as the largest Canadian network — CA*net. Similar networks have developed around the world and many of them are linked through the US-based NSFNet. The British Columbia section of CA*net is known as BC.net and is operated largely by the province’s three major universities and the government. BCIT 04/02/20 MDIA 1205: Web Design Technologies 1 Introduction to the Internet and HTML Unit1–5 By 2018 Internet users numbered more than 4 billion worldwide — see the counter at https://www.internetlivestats.com/ which shows how quickly Internet use is growing. In 2018 the number of Internet hosts (sites) was estimated at more than 1.5 billion. That is almost 4 users for every host. No wonder information on the Net is getting more and more difficult to locate. https://www.internetlivestats.com ACTIVITY: For more historical information on the Internet, link your browser to Hobbes’s Internet Timeline at https://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/. Today, the Internet is a vast collection of data transmission lines which connect computers located at distant sites and is evolving and increasing in size and ability very quickly. The number of computers and people connecting to it is doubling every year. In the early days of the Internet, the typical home user employed a telephone modem (MOdulator/DEModulator) to transmit information over their phone line to and from a local Internet service provider’s server — some users, especially in isolated areas and in developing countries — still employ slow-speed modems, so we must take that into account when writing Web pages. Logically, a service provider is called an Internet Service Provider (or ISP). The local server can be thought of as a powerful computer that accepts calls from its customers and transmits information between those customers over the Internet.

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