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Design Techniques:

"Common HTML" ...

"Common HTML" refers to the use of a subset of the Hyper Text Markup Language that is accepted by most internet browsers.  There is no single fixed standard for the data that is sent to web browsers.  Individual companies have implemented portions of various HTML standards, and in some cases have added special features specific to their company's browser.  To further confuse matters, newer languages such as Java are being added that may, or may not, be understood by the user's browser.  CGI scripts and dynamic HTML are also newer methods for encoding commands to the user's browser.

The advantage to coding using "common HTML" is that the website has the greatest probability of performing properly, regardless of which browser the user has selected.  While this may prevent some sophisticated displays, it both increases the speed of the website and decreases the intrusions into the user's machine.  For example, many users object to "cookies" and scripts.  While "cookies" are supposed to be benign, they take space on the user's hard drive.  Scripts may pose an even greater threat to the user, which is why most browsers incorporate security features that can prevent them from automatically running unless allowed by the user.

In addition to users, websites must be easily read by "spiders".  These are programs that automatically search the World Wide Web, and extract the data for various search engines.  If a website cannot be understood by the "spiders", then it is unlikely to be listed by the search engines, or found by the users.

techsupport@p2-c2.com           sales@p2-c2.com Last revised: February 2, 2001 Copyright: 2001, Professional Personal Computer Consulting, Moses Lake, WA

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