Keep in mind that the thing that makes the Web (and the Internet in general) work are agreed-upon rules ("standards") that allow users of almost any kind of computer able to communicate and share information.
Where does HTML fit into all of this?
What we cover in this tutorial is aimed toward producing documents that comply with the HTML standards.
By using "standard" HTML, your work is going to be most widely "shareable" in the fast changing future of the 'net. The early set of standards, known as HTML 2.0, are supported by nearly all web browsers in use right now.Things got somewhat more complicated with the features included in HTML 3.2 since Netscape and Microsoft have introduced many features that go beyond standard HTML, and were at first supported by certain web browsers. Still, here in late 1998, you will find a Majority of web users (but not all) are using a web browser capable of displaying all features of HTML 3.2.
The current set of proposed standards is HTML 4.0 contains even more features for HTML and some attempts to reduce the complexities of different web browsers. Unfortunately, things keep getting more complex!
What does this mean? For accessibility on the widest range of possible web browsers and versions out there, stick with the most basic set of HTML code. Of course, this may limit what you'd like to put in a web page! If you include HTML that may look snazzy only in Netscape but not Internet Explorer, you may turn people away from your site. Not only that, viewers of your web pages may not only be using different browsers, but their monitor size and fonts may not be the same as on the system you designed the pages.
After all, you are probably not going to spend all of this time designing web pages that are for your viewing only! The idea is to make something that the world can view. So the first section of lessons will take you through the most widely accepted features of HTML. From there, you can make the decision to use more of the "deluxe" features.
The Internet Connection at MCLI is
Alan Levine --}
Comments to levine@maricopa.edu
URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/tut0.html