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The Comment tag. Many programming languages allow us to write comments in a program Comments are ignored by the computer when processing the program but are useful to humans reading the program text HTML also provides comments
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The Comment tag • Many programming languages allow us to write comments in a program • Comments are ignored by the computer when processing the program but are useful to humans reading the program text • HTML also provides comments • They are ignored by browsers but are useful to humans reading HTML specifications
Comment tags (contd.) • A comment tag is of the form <!-- Some-comment-text-appears-here --> • A comment can appear anywhere in a HTML specification • They are frequently used to tell people who wrote the specification, when, why, etc.
<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Politics in Ireland </TITLE> <BASE HREF=“http://www.iol.ie/pres/”> <!-- Written by: James Bowen Date: 19/10/2000 Why: CS4400 class --> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1> Presidents </H1> <P> The presidents of Ireland were </P> <OL> <LI> <A HREF="hyde.htm"> Douglas Hyde </A> <LI><A HREF="dev.htm"> Eamon de Valera </A> </OL> </BODY> </HTML>
<IMG> tags • <IMG> tags are used to incorporate pictures into web documents • A picture cannot be inserted directly into the HTML spec of a web document, since a HTML spec is a textual spec • <IMG> tags are used to point to pictures that we want to appear in a web document
<IMG> tags (contd.) • The <IMG> tag is a structured tag -- it has attributes • The SRC attribute is used to point to the picture to be included <IMG SRC = “some-URL” >
Of course, we can have text with the pictures
The ALIGN attribute • In early versions of HTML, IMG tags used to have an ALIGN attribute for specifying how to align pictures relative to neighbouring text • This was, therefore, a rendering attribute • DO NOT USE this attribute • NEVER use rendering attributes • We will see how to achieve rendering effects more cleanly when we meet Style Sheets
Specifying Image sizes • The <IMG> tag has further ATTRIBUTES • the WIDTH and • the HEIGHT which specify the size of the displayed version of an image, in units called “pixels”
<H2> Suez </H2> <P> <IMG SRC = "mideast.gif" > <IMG SRC = "mideast.gif" WIDTH = 50 HEIGHT = 75 > <IMG SRC = "mideast.gif" WIDTH = 150 HEIGHT = 225 > </P>
Colour of the background • It would be preferable if you could ignore such rendering features as the colour of the background • Unfortunately, when you start using pictures, you cannot, since pictures have colour and you have to consider how clearly an image will show up against the background
Background colour (contd.) • For example, consider how the last document we specified would appear in both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer
Background colour (contd.) • In Netscape, the images show up clearly against the default background colour, which is white • In Explorer, the largely-grey images do not contrast so well with the grey-ish background
Background colour (contd.) • We can specify the background colour we want • Early versions of HTML provided a BGCOLOR attribute in the <BODY> tag • However this is a rendering attribute and SHOULD NOT BE USED • We will see how to do it more cleanly when we meet style sheets
Background PATTERNS • We can also ask the browser to use a repeated version of some image as a background • This should be done with care, because • it can lead to unreadable documents • it adds to the length of time it takes to download a document over the Internet
Background PATTERNS • Early versions of HTML provided an attribute in the <BODY> tag for this purpose • Again, as with all rendering attributes, DO NOT USE IT • We will see how to do achieve the same effect more cleanly when we meet style sheets
Another kind of list: Definition lists
Definition lists: • Frequently, we want to have lists of items like this: CPU Central Processor Unit VDU Visual Display Unit IRQ Interrupt ReQuest
In other words, we want to have a list in which each member has two parts: • a TERM, whose meaning is to be defined • a DEFINITION of the term
HTML provides a tag for this kind of concept: the Definition List tag or <DL> tag • A list of definitions is delimited by a <DL> tag and a </DL> tag <DL> …. …. </DL>
Each item between the <DL> and </DL> tags has two parts, a term and its definition • A term is delimited by <DT> and </DT> tags, while a definition is delimited by <DD> and </DD> tags: <DL> <DT > CPU </DT> <DD> Central Processing Unit </DD> <DT> VDU </DT> <DD> Visual Display Unit </DD> <DT> IRQ </DT> <DD> Interrupt ReQuest </DD> </DL>
Example document: <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Definition List </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1> Some Computing Acronyms </H1> <DL> <DT > CPU </DT> <DD> Central Processing Unit </DD> <DT> VDU </DT> <DD> Visual Display Unit </DD> <DT> IRQ </DT> <DD> Interrupt ReQuest </DD> </DL> </BODY> </HTML>
Another example document: <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Languages of the World </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <H1> Languages of the World </H1> <DL> <DT > Tok Pisin </DT> <DD> A Melanesian Creole spoken in the South-western Pacific </DD> <DT> Hakka </DT> <DD> One of the languages spoken in Fujien province in China</DD> <DT> Mon </DT> <DD> A language spoken in Cambodia</DD> <DT> Xhosa </DT> <DD> One of the major languages of South Africa</DD> </DL> </BODY> </HTML>
Style Sheets: the right way to specify rendering
Structure versus Rendering • HTML specifications of documents should contain only information about how a document is structured into logical units such as paragraphs, pictures, lists, etc. • HTML specifications should not contain rendering information • And yet: • we often want to specify how we want a document rendered
Question: • How can we specify our own style of rendering without mixing rendering rules inside a document’s logical specification?
Answer: • We should use Style sheets
Style sheets • A style sheet contains a set of rendering specifications • We can apply a style sheet to a HTML document specification in order to change the appearance of the document when it is rendered by a browser
A simple style sheet • This style sheet specifies that all <H1> items in any document to which the style sheet is applied should be printed in red H1 { COLOR : red}
Storing style sheets: • We can store style sheets in files with the extension “.css” • For example, the style sheet H1 { COLOR : red} could be stored in a file called style1.css
Applying style sheets • We apply a style sheet in a .css file to a document in a .htm file by calling the .css file in the <HEAD> part of the .htm file: <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> … </TITLE> <LINK REL=STYLESHEET TYPE=“text/css” HREF=“style1.css” > </HEAD> <BODY> <H1> Wars of the 20th Century </H1> </BODY> </HTML>
Multiple usage of a style sheet: • We can apply a style sheet which is stored in a .css file to many documents • This HTML spec uses style1.css as well: <html> <head> <title> … </title> <link rel=“stylesheet” type=“text/css” href=“style1.css” > </head> <body> <h1> Tourist Attractions of the World </h1> </body> </html>
A more sophisticated style sheet Specifying styles for <P> items as well as <H1> items
style2.css h1 {color : red} p {color : blue}
wars.htm <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> … </TITLE> <LINK REL=STYLESHEET TYPE=“text/css” HREF=“style2.css” > </HEAD> <BODY> <H1> Wars of the 20th Century</H1> <P>The century just coming to an end was one of the bloodiest on record ... </P> </BODY> </HTML>