Next stop Webville (or, My Name is Not Earl)

I’m not embarrassed to say that one of the major road blocks for me all these years was understanding how and why a site that I might design on my computer finally becomes a real working Web site. I mean, I got the fact that it lived on a server somewhere…out there. And I’m sure I even posed this question to friends and colleagues numerous times. But for whatever reason it seemed the most daunting task or challenging obstacle. We all have irrational fears and this was one of mine. I’m over it now, just so you know.

So far our road to Webville has consisted only of HTML files that lived on our computers. Chapter 4 explodes from the gate with the promise of getting us on the Web! Already? Wow! But hey, I guess it’s kind of the point here. Step one is finding a web hosting company—of which there are many. (Oh so that’s how they do it! kidding.) Choosing the one that’s right for you when you’re just starting out can be overwhelming so I asked around. No sooner had I “tweeted” my query and I was suddenly receiving recommendations such as Westhost, Media Temple, Dreamhost, Dathorn and Web Hosting Geeks, to name a few. Luckily I didn’t have to pick one right away, and at the time of this posting I’m still figuring it out. And waiting for my partner in crime to catch up. We’ll get there.

Now with any website there comes the web address, or URL, of course. (That’s, U-R-L, not Earl, right? Good.) We all know this by now. But what do the different parts do; what do they mean; and why? Just because you don’t have to know for it to work, I like knowing that my request and response protocol (http) is making the connection between the Web server and my browser. And I love it when the Uniform Resource Locator locates my resource. But that’s just me. The design and computer world is filled with codes and shorthands and acronyms a-plenty. EPS, JPG, TIFF, PDF…they all stand for something. Someday it might come up at a party and I don’t mind being that guy who can tell you.

The chapter closes with an indepth look at the difference between relative paths (for linking to pages within your site), and URLs for external links. Also very helpful, and new to me, was the id attribute to create a destination anchor; and the target attribute that will open your link in another browser window. A feature I prefer when I’m surfing the web. I’m going to start using this when I post links on Flickr.

“There are no dumb questions,” but apparently there are dumb quotes.

The week has run away and I’m trying to lasso it back in. Unfortunately, Jim was sick last Saturday and Sunday, and the writeup on Chapter 3 was delayed. I am keeping on track with our self-imposed schedule, but find I only have time to do the Head First readings on the weekends.

Before there was the HTML element, there was the typing element. Memories of high school typing class have resurfaced. 1984 or 85. We learned in a room with row upon row of IBM Selectrics and prop-up books of nonsense word strings.  I’m not so bad with sentences, it’s the numbers and symbols on a keyboard that slow me down. Especially the unnatural actions of making my right middle and ring fingers bend down to key in those dratted angle brackets. Seriously, how do you web coders do it without losing pace or speed? There are so many of them required in this stuff!

Chapter 3, “Web Page Construction,” was a bit long. I tried to ignore some missing punctuation in the beginning (in the illustration on page 78), but I have very strong feelings about prime marks being called quotation marks (page 86). We learned the <q> and <blockquote> elements; the <br> element, which is like a soft return (shift + return); and 3 types of list tags.

…At which point I went off track and searched the web till I found this handy article on curling straight quotes. Straight quotes are a.k.a. dumb quotes, but they are in fact inch marks or double prime marks. Being able to make correct quote and apostrophe marks makes me happy. A friend has wondered how I will deal with the limitations of type on the web. Maybe I waited long enough to learn web that those limitations are minimal?

Block elements, inline elements, nesting. I’m glad the authors are emphasizing correct structuring. I am learning this and I like things that are logical, I just wish it didn’t take so long to actually write the HTML.