Learning Journal
Web Development Perceptions
I never really knew much about W3C. In tutorial one exercise one I thought I had built my page appropriately,I saved and then opened it in my browser and it looked good. However, when I ran the code through the W3C tester though I got some error messages. I read the error reports and went back to my editor and through a process of trial and error finally came to the conclusion that I could not just simply use my "strong"and"em" at the beginning and end of my ul. While my extra savings items were in fact bold and italicized, the format was not congruent with the standard set forth by W3C. I then had to go in and enter the commands individual for every item before I got the stamp of approval.
As for careers, I have felt like things online are so easy now there can't be that many people need to build or manage web pages anymore. It seems like everyone who uses Facebook is a Photoshop guru, and now days anyone can build their own flash site with the help of a generator. All I have to do is draw up some controls in Illustrator, pop them into catalyst and magically I'm a programmer. Digital communications however are not going away, in fact the more technology advances the more the average person is required to know regarding technology to remain successful. For every program that allows people to design a web page or a skin or an app there is a whole team to support it. From concept to design, to maintenance and customer support, IT skills are a must.
I have recently began working with several of the Adobe CS5 programs and am thrilled by the possibilities. I love to create, to use my imagination, to bring my vision into reality. I can't wait until I become proficient at using these programs.
HTML History
So It took me a while to figure out that I could use an id tag inside of the heading. Those are the kind of things that I miss out on when I only skim the book in my excitement to get some hands on learning, though in the end I probably remember better learning it the hard way... hopefully. The other thing that I got hung up on for a while was the pound sign for my image map. MY page validated properly and all but all I could get was the standard pointer, no tool tip no links. I read it over and over and over again until I finally caught it what a pain.
The history of HTML os kind of funny in that there were a handful, well really one guy (Dan Connelly) who wanted to save everyone a lot of trouble from the beginning by creating a standard for HTML code that could would define it as a language and help everyone communicate that much better. Nobody however wanted that because they were to busy trying to monopolize on being the standard setters through developing browsers in hope they could gain total market control. It wasn't until it became more profitable to come up with a standard that big business finally sat down almost completely cutting out IETF and came up with a standard almost overnight.
Many of the problems with HTML is that everyone feels differently about every aspect of it from the tags themselves to what is the best way to the best way to style web pages. While it is good that people want to be on the same page I don't see the need for it as the market will always reconcile back top the most efficient and profitable option. One theme that has stuck around that came out of the instability of early HTML is the concept of extensions to offer compatibility between browsers and protocols. This first emerged with Active X and is still going strong. I like for there to be room for experimentation and different approaches to writing code because there is always a better way just waiting to be discovered. If we had stuck to the original ideas behind HTML we wouldn't even have colored fonts. The debates on standards will continue, and I see it as healthy
CSS History
As the internet continued to develop it became clear that the information that structure protocol and language had taken a back seat to the endless waves of new technologies, programs, and applications. What was even clearer was that technology would keep growing at an exponential rate; with which it was already nearly impossible to keep up with. There needed to be some sort of boundaries between the actual information and how it was presented so that the same information could be accessed uniformly and in a wide variety of ways while lower the amount of time spent on managing and maintaining it. Web browsers weren't making things any easier as they all were doing their own things in search for larger market share.
CSS offered relief to these problems as web designers could adapt uniform guidelines. This allows for easier upkeep and helps limit complications especially now that the web has gone worldwide. It keeps the general structure neat and simple while still providing unlimited creative control to programmers and designers. CSS is still in version two though version three has been under development since 2005. There are still struggles between browsers and their compatibility in viewing CSS most notably with Internet Explorer.
I like html and CSS alright but I don't think they will be the way things are done in the future. CSS has many limitations when it comes to layouts as it is more stylistic in its capabilities. I feel that while it's good to set standards like the W3C they are trying to hold on to and control something that is going to do nothing other than what the free market directs it to. I feel that the problem with these working groups is that they simply can never get things done fast enough to keep up with something as dynamic as the internet.
Breaking Out Of the Box
I thought that this article really had some good pointers on how to make a CSS layouut look a little more stylish. Infact the pointers were so good I got off on a tangent and spent entirely too much time trying to be overly creative. Don't get me wrong I do want to push myself and be able to use these techniques to add more flow to my design I'm just really not there yet.
Most of the problem that I encountered was trying to find graphics to play around with. When I had trouble trying to find some unique headers, footers, or buttons they all costed money. So I resolved to make my own using photoshop and illustrator and at the end of what seemed like a thousand video tutorial and endless new documents I finally quit.
Logos are anouther critical factor in design as they make all the difference in whether or not a site looks professional. They are also a difficult thing to get a hold of. SOmetimes I feel as I'm going to be stuck inside of the box forever making really cheesey webpages forever and ever- but you have to start somewhere right? I benefitted the most from the layout help between all the different units of measurement, styles of layouts and different formats it is really easy to get confused about what type of measaurement goes where and other basic guidlelins like that. Also I found the negative margins concept a really neat idea.. thoughI think I'll wait to expiriment with them for another night!