Basic HTML and WWW Resources
A Few Highly Recommended HTML Primers and Guides
Disability-Specific Documentation
Speech-Friendly Editors and Authoring Utilities
(And An Argument Against Their Use...)
Although there are a number of DOS-based authoring utilities, such as:
which allow you to construct pages without any knowledge of HTML, there
are two reasons why i would strongly advise against reliance on such programs:
- use of any menu-based authoring utility leaves you at the tender
mercies of the application's developers as far as the validity and
quality of the HTML the utility outputs, and
- using a menu-driven application to construct pages, while a quick and
easy way to get information out on the web, does nothing to enhance
your knowledge of HTML
Editing pages manually by toggling back and forth between Lynx and an
online editor, as described in Welcome to the
Wonderful World of Hypertext, on the other hand, not only endows
you with complete control over every aspect of the page's construction,
but is the most effective way for anyone--blind or sighted--to intuatively
and indelibly learn the relationship between HTML code and the rendering
of documents...
Toggling back and forth between the rendered version of a page and the
document source by pressing the backslash key, is the quickest and most
effective way to learn how to define links, how to separate blocks of
text from one another, the difference between a container and a
separator, how to identify and rectify errors, and how to insert
effectors... Granted, such a method of instruction won't teach you how
to describe what you've done in the technical jargon associated with web
design and construction, but it will enable you to construct a
damn fine web page, pleasing to the ear as well as the eye... Then,
after you've mucked (that was an m) around a bit with HTML,
get a primer on HTML to learn how to transform your individually tailored
bookmark files into an integrated and sophisticated website...
PC-Based Versions of Popular Online Editors
One of the best ways to familiarize yourself with the online editors
offered by your ISP is to use a pc version of that editor. In addition,
they are very useful for editing your hypertext documents offline, which
is an imporant consideration if you do not have unlimited access or a
local dialup.
EMACS
UEMACS
UEMACS, also known as micro-EMACS, is a
pc version of the powerful online editor. The latest release (April 1996) of
UEMACS is UEMACS 4.00, which runs under
DOS, OS/2, WINDOWS, and WINDOWS NT. While UEMACS 4.00 is
available via anonymous ftp, it is not distributed in a zipfile--rather,
it is archived in two directories:
disk1 and
disk2. The first
directory contains all of the files necessary to run an installation
program which installs UEMACS 4.00 on your pc, while the
second directory contains the source and development files for
UEMACS 4.00, packaged in one zipfile,
ue400dev.zip
To load a working version of UEMACS on your pc, therefore,
you need to download the following four files:
- disk.id
- emacs.red
- install.dat
- install.exe
copy them to a floppy, and then run the installation program. Speech
users note that you will retain speech throughout the installation
process.
PC-PICO
if you prefer PICO as an editor, there are two flavors of
pc-PICO:
Sites Which Contain Links to Other HTML Primers and Guides
Warning: These sites have been purposefully
placed at the end of this document since the majority of the documents
they contain are not only speech-hostile, but Lynx hostile, as well...
while i realize that not everyone who reads this will be interested in
learning HTML via Lynx, there is no excuse for designing a page which
purports to provide a basic introduction to HTML authoring that is not
compatible with all browsers...
ommissions? errors? erroneous URLs?
corrections? clarifications? criticism?
email me at oedipus@hicom.net
- return to The Wonderful World of Hypertext
- return to the beginning of this document
- return to Lynx Links and HTML Authoring Resources
- return to Camera Obscura's Front Page
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