Basics: Wednesday, Jan 7      
                                  

   Where are all of those home pages?

     Last class we saw how the browser sends a request to a server that
     eventually downloads a page into the browser. Let's take a closer
     look at how the server finds a home page.

     As we saw last class there is usually a local web server that helps
     route the request for a home page to the appropriate user.  Here in
     the CS department, each professor and student has an account on the 
     departmental machines: gargoyle, tartarus etc.. 

     (UNIX INTRO)
     A typical "personal" computer can only support one user at a time. But
     the departmental machines use the UNIX operating system, which gives
     them the ability to keep track of many users at a time.  With a username
     and password to a particular UNIX machine (say midway, ellis or
     kimbark, where your mail is kept) you can log on to them from a
     desktop machine, like a Mac, PC, SGI or Sun workstation.  

     In every account on these UNIX machines, there is a special folder or
     directory called HTML, where a given user's web pages are
     stored.  In every HTML directory there is a basic page that is called
     index.html.  When the web server receives the request

           http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~username/index.html

     it goes to the corresponding account, looks in the HTML directory and
     finds the index.html file.  Then it sends that file to the client that
     made the request.  Thus, index.html is the home page. 

        Note: because the browser is always gonna head for the index.html
        file first, you can actually leave that part off if you want to.

     For your web pages, there is a UNIX web server called classes.
     Each student will have an account on this machine, complete with a
     HTML directory and a very simple index.html file.  Over the course of
     the quarter, you will change this file and add new files, but you must
     ALWAYS have a file in your HTML directory named index.html.  If you
     change it's name or move it without replacing the file, the server
     will have no idea how to find your home page. What's worse, the
     browser will display the entire contents of your directory in an
     attempt to give the requesting client some info on where to look. This
     gives people access to things you may not have intended to publish on-line.

Getting to your web pages:

     Tutorial this afternoon and on Thursday will explain basic issues
     involved in using the Mac Lab machines to edit your pages. The following
     info on server setup, BBEdit and Graphic Converter should get you started.
     The web server will also allow you to login using telnet or X Windows
     from any machine on campus, or via a modem from home if you're set
     up for that.

Registering your Web account:

     You will have to go to the class web page and use the Web Account
     Request form to register for your account on the web server. If you go
     to the tutorial this afternoon or tomorrow, Jay will walk you through
     this.  It's pretty straight forward: you follow the link on the
     class web page and enter the necessary information, and then submit
     the form.  This will set up your new account, hopefully by the end of
     the day.


Basic Login stuff:  ( this will be covered in detail during the tutorial )

     Once you have registered, you can get to your new web account
     through the MacLab or from the dorm or home.  If neither of these make
     sense to you, you should probably go to the tutorial.

     Mac Login :  
	Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen.
	Select it and scroll down to the Chooser option.
	In the left column of the Chooser, select the CS zone
	In the right column of the Chooser, choose the Classes server
	Enter your standard quads login name and password.

     UNIX  login :
	the server name is www-classes.cs.uchicago.edu
	use your standard quads login name and password
      
 
Your Tools:  Word Processor or HTML editor

     In the Mac Lab, you can use BBEdit to manipulate and save your HTML
     documents.  It's basically a word processor that includes some special
     functions for editing hypertext.  If you are comfortable on the UNIX side you
     can use Emacs to edit your documents instead. It all depends on what you
     are most comfortable with.  There are many tools out there that can
     "translateÓ documents from standard text format to HTML, but they are
     not always accurate. There are also special programs to make HTML
     design "easy" but using them won't help you understand what's really
     going on behind the scenes.  Better to learn HTML and then switch to a
     more automated environment when you know the real tradeoffs that are
     associated with such programs.

Graphics software

     Slick graphics are not a requirement for the pages you will be
     developing in this class.  For ease of use and simplicity, we will be
     using Graphic Converter to do simple buttons, titles etc. However,
     those of you who wish to spice up your pages should look into
     Photoshop.  It's a larger program and it takes time to learn how to
     use it, but with it you can create very sophisticated graphics.

Browser software 

     Both Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer are
     available at the Mac Lab.  You can download these applications to your
     machine from the Mac Lab or get them through the appropriate FTP
     servers (ftp.netscape.com or ftp.microsoft.com). This will be covered
     in the tutorial.  Remember, different browsers display things
     differently, so it's good to be familiar with both Netscape and
     Explorer.  As you begin to design pages you will need to consider the
     limitations of both browsers and how your pages are displayed on both.

 
What can you do now?

     Right now, the blank page in your account is really plain. If you load
     it into a text editor or choose "view page source" from the View menu
     in Netscape, you will see the following:

    
     
      
        
      
    
      
       
       

       
         This student has not added a home page yet.
      
       
     

     It has two major parts: a head and a body, marked by the special
     HTML tags in all caps. But for now, let's just concentrate on  
     what you see in the browser.

     When you look at it, all you see are a graphic (a cs departmental
     logo) and one sentence, indicating that you have yet to change the
     content of the page. 

     Right now, without any HTML experience, you can change this page.
     Load the page into your editing environment, delete the sentence 
     "This student....yet" and type in something else.  The text will 
     not be formatted, but it will show up. That's part of your first assignment.

Tutorial Times:

     Wednesday 5:00 to 6:00,  Thursday 4:30-5:30. You only need to go to 
     one of them.

Class Web Page:

     http://www.classes.cs.uchicago.edu/classes/CS101/html/index.html


Hypernews: 

     Hypernews is a form discussion/newsgroup via the web.  There will be a
     Hypernews discussion for this section of the class, which you will be
     able to get to from the class homepage.  There will be plenty of
     documentation about how it works on the introductory pages, but in
     general it's pretty easy to use.  This is where most discussion
     regarding assignments will take place. Instructors will check and answer  
     the questions as they are posted, probably in the late afternoons on M W F
     and once or twice on weekends.  We encourage you to participate in the
     discussions here because they will help me see who is trying to learn
     and who is trying to share what they know. These are both very
     important to me.  If you know the answer to a question, by all means
     post!  You'll be kissing up and helping someone all at once!

     There will be an area for testing, an area for posting regarding
     assignments and an area where you can comment on the class.  You can
     post anonymously here. This way we can gauge how well we're doing and
     what we can do to make the class better for everyone involved.