Fw: A class

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Temer" <temer(at)c-zone.net>
To: "Laura Dowling" <laura(at)dowlingcentral.com>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: A class


> Tondi:
>
> I have to agree with both Mike and Laura here. To do so is seemingly
> oxymoronic I realize, but they both have a point.
>
> The first question is: Just what is a HTML class?
>
> If we are talking about the strict HTML tags and basic construction, there
> are any number of books, magazines, and dozens of web sites that offer
basic
> HTML. However--if we are talking about creating web pages--that is
something
> different entirely.
>
> This is a HTML discussion list and we--all of us, not just Mike--tend to
> take our HTML pretty seriously. (Just kidding Mike.) But in the overall
> scheme of the Universe, we are--in all probability--making a lot of fuss
> over a form of "code" that is rapidly becoming obsolete in the practical
> sense of it's application.
>
> By this I mean: HTML is becoming more and more like any of the half dozen
so
> called "script" or "tag" languages that were in vogue in the word
processing
> world a decade ago--or so.
>
> Remember this???
> [ll2100][ft4][ps12][ls15][jc]The Title
> [np][ft3][ps10][jl][stab1.0200]
> [ctab1]This is now the body of the message ...
>
> Of course, only the actual text printed out and you had:
>
>                           The Title
>     This is now the body of the message
>
> Well--it's been a few years and I may have missed or forgotten some of the
> tags--but you get the idea. We actually took classes on some of that
stuff.
> Then we got a thirty thousand dollar "Typesetter" that had keys to press
for
> most of the tags. Wow, how neat.
>
> We didn't care about design. All we did was type the text. The "designer"
> told us what our line length was and what font and size, etc.
>
> Then Word and Word Perfect came out with WYSIWYG interfaces and the
> typesetting world crumbled. Suddenly, typesetters were actually designing
> the whole page and designers were doing their own typesetting.  And both
> sides were arguing that their view of the marriage was the important one.
>
> The argument was that you could not possibly type a page in Word unless
you
> knew all those codes. Well, you can still write micros in Word to this day
> and some actually do. But it is not the same as the old tag method and we
> all know it.
>
> So the question none of us really wants to face is:
>
> Just how useful will learning the actual "tags" be to our students when
they
> graduate into the business world in half a decade from now. Will any
> business still be using this admittedly slow and crude way of creating a
> page.
>
> From personal experience I can tell you that if you have a client standing
> over your shoulder as you make changes he or she has just dreamed up, it
is
> awful nice to have their page in a WYSIWYG editor.
>
> Remember, FP2000 or any late version of the "automatic" editors will write
> perfectly valid code as long as you stay with the basics. It's all those
> special features that cause the problems. And "they" are even working on
> that. In FP2000 for example, you can set it to only use features that work
> in BOTH Netscape and Explorer. Of course, many will not do this as it
leaves
> about a third of the available goodies "grayed out".
>
> Well--you can't please them all.
>
> So---the basic question will soon become--Is the student better off
learning
> the individual tags or learning which features work with what and what
looks
> proper and pleasing to the viewer???
>
> Do I have an answer?? Of course not. And many--if not most--would never
> accept it if I did. But you can bet that the future will answer it for
> sure--one way or another.
>
> Best wishes
> Ted Temer
> Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
> temer(at)c-zone.net
> www.temercraft.com/
> www.newsredding.com/
>
>
>
>
> > I would love to teach a class in HTML. (I am a middle school Language
Arts
> > teacher getting a Masters in ED. Tech.) Anyway, for one, I would teach
> them
> > about design principles. Kids writing HTML are notorious for using weird
> > backgrounds  that are impossible to read, and have a strong desire to
use
> as
> > many gyrating graphics on the page as possible!
> >
> >>>>SNIP<<<<
>

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