METAWEB: A WEB PAGE ABOUT THE WEB

The World Wide Web is slowly becoming "The Net." Right now most Web browsers allow you to view and/or download hypertext, gopher, and all types of ftp files. You can also send mail, read and participate in news groups, do archie and veronica searches, telnet or rlogin to a host, and finger people and hosts through Web browsers. This page contains information about:

• Choosing Your Web Browser
• Using Your Web Browser To...
• Web-Related FAQs, News Groups, and Mailing Lists
• Creating and Announcing Web Pages
• HTML 3
• Miscellaneous Web Information

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Choosing Your Web Browser

If you have a computer running one of these operating systems:

• Macintosh
• X Windows
• 32-bit MS Windows (NT, Win95, or Windows 3.1x+Win32s)

Then I recommend NCSA Mosaic. I prefer NCSA Mosaic over Netscape because:

• NCSA Mosaic is freely licensed to more people than Netscape. Also, Netscape's licenses -- "free educational and evaluation use" and "no fee version" -- are the most confusing licenses I have ever read (and they have created all kinds of debate in news groups). Support free software and clearly written licenses, use NCSA Mosaic!
• NCSA Mosaic has not imposed its own bastardized HTML on the world. Support HTML 3, don't use Netscape!

If you use a text-based system, then I recommend Lynx. Information about these and many other Web browsers is available at:

• The WWW FAQ Obtaining and Using Web Browsers section
• Consummate Winsock Apps List of Web Browsers
• Yahoo's Computers:World Wide Web:Browsers

(Note that there are many others who are not fans of Netscape including Warwick Allison and Nick Sayer.)

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Using Your Web Browser To . . .

• Search and browse the Net
• Search Gopher sites using Veronica and Jughead, and then view and download gopher files
• Search ftp sites using Archie, and then view and download ftp files
• Find news groups, and then read and participate in them
• Finger people and hosts around the world
• Look up domains using WhoIs; especially useful is the Internic's WhoIs
• Dial a phone number

Other gateways are listed at Yahoo's Computers and Internet:Internet:World Wide Web:Gateways.

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Web-Related FAQs, News Groups, and Mailing Lists

• Thomas Boutell's Fabulous World Wide Web FAQ is archived at sites all over the world. You can access it from many places including the United States, Italy, or Australia.
• comp.infosystems.www.* News Groups
  • Thomas Boutell's descriptions and news groups launchpad
  • Oxford University's descriptions and news groups and FAQs launchpad
  • You can search all the messages that have been posted to these groups at Critical Mass Communications
• alt.html.writers and alt.html.writers.guild.list
• www-talk and www-html Mailing List Archives

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Creating and Announcing Web Pages

One of the first things to decide when designing your Web pages is whether to use Netscape's extensions to HTML (aka NHTML). Many Net savvy folks think that it is best to use standard HTML, especially HTML 3. To help you decide, see:

• Mike Meyer's Commentary on Netscape's extensions to HTML
• David Siegel's Severe Tire Damage on the Information Highway: An Open Letter to Netscape Communications and the WWW Community
• Chris Pearce's The Hall of Shame

Web Authoring Aids

• Yahoo's Computers:World Wide Web:Authoring
• HTML Writer's Guild HTML Resources and Home Page
• Krish Menon's The Art of HTML
• Kevin Werbach's The Bare Bones Guide to HTML
• Character Entities
• Adam Bernstein's Transparent/Interlaced GIF Resource Page
• Also look at the WWW FAQ and comp.infosystems.www.authoring.* news groups described above.
• Information on writing in general is available on Infinite Ink's Writing Page
• An important part of Web authoring is validating your Web pages. Some tools for doing this are listed at Yahoo's Computers and Internet:Software:Data Formats:HTML:Validation/Checkers; especially useful is HALSoft HTML Validation Service
• One of the most frequently asked Web authoring questions is: How do I put a counter on my Web pages? There are lots of ways to do this but many peole, including me, think the best way is to use log analysis tools such as those available at Yahoo's Computers and Internet:Internet:World Wide Web:HTTP:Servers:Log Analysis Tools.

Announcing Your Web Page(s)

When you are ready to announce your Web page(s), you can use Submit It! to submit your page(s) to lots of Web catalogs. Other announcement services are listed at Computers and Internet:Internet:World Wide Web:Announcement Services.

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HTML 3.0

The HTML 3.0 specification is evolving but a lot of it is already decided and ready for use! A good place to start learning about HTML 3.0 is Arena's HTML 3.0 Guided Tour. A copy of the spec is at W3 and Dave Raggett's pages. Right now the best browsers for viewing HTML 3.0 are Arena and UdiWWW. Sample pages that use HTML 3 are at Tzog's HTML 3 page.

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Miscellaneous Web Information

Lots of information about the Web is available at Yahoo's Computers and Internet:Internet:World Wide Web. Also see Infinite Ink's Internet in a Nutshell.

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Copyright © 1992-1997 Infinite Ink and Nancy McGough Last content update on April 19, 1997 Last tweak on April 19, 1997	www.ii.com/internet/web/ www.best.com/~ii/internet/web/