Computer Networks

Tutorial #5

1. Before coming to the tutorial, use your browser to "view source" for this tute sheet. Can you understand the HTML markups used? If you don't, ask for it to be explained in the tutorial

2. Show^[1] the <A> tag that is needed to make the string "ACM" be a hyperlink to http://www.acm.org.

3. Suppose^[2] that in its effort to become more market oriented, the KGB goes commercial and hires an advertising agency that designs a Web page for it. Your company has been hired as an outside consultant to implement it. Write the HTML to produce the Web page below.

   

4. In the Web materials for BITCNE, your lecturer (usually) uses only logical markups for text emphasis. The alternative is to use physical markups. Why do you think purists recommend the use of logical markup for emphasis?

5. In the lecture notes, mention was made of the difference between designing for the "structure" of a Web page, versus designing for the "appearance" of a page. Explain the difference between each of these, and comment on their advantages and disadvantages.

6. In this lecture, we discussed the structure of Web pages. You will also commonly hear people talk Home pages and Web sites.
   1. What is a Home Page, and how is it different to any other Web page?
   2. What is a Web site, and how is it different to a Web page?

7. Philosophical question: The various "list" markups in HTML are nowadays being used less and less on the Web. Most new sites tend to use the TABLE markups to achieve a similar (their authors would say superior) effect.
   1. What are HTML TABLES and how do you specify them? VERY brief answers are fine!
   2. How can TABLES be used to replace the various "list" types?
   3. What are some advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

8. (Research 1) In the lecture notes, the "hyperlink" example showed the value of the HREF as a full URL. At least two other variations exist for the value of the HREF. Discover what they are, and how to use them. Hint: they're all used in this tute...

9. (Research 2) One interesting aspect of the Web is that the Netscape people have defined a de facto set of 216 Web Colours which their browser will render correctly. Other colours will (often) simply be mapped by Netscape browsers to the "closest" of the 216 available. Other browsers have adopted this set of colours as well.
   1. Why do you think Netscape specified 216 colours, when almost all modern computers have at least "8-bit" video, and can therefore display 256 colours?
   2. Find out how you specify "Netscape compatible" colours in the standard hexadecimal RGB format (where, eg, white is "#FFFFFF").
   3. How should this affect your choice of colours in Web backgrounds and images?

10. (Research 3) The Web Accessibility Initiative is a project of the World Wide Web consortium. Find out what you can about this initiative, and its relevance to good design of design Web pages.