Making of a Website

Ed Grochowski

Introduction

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the tools that I use to create this website.

HTML

The website is composed of static HTML (hypertext markup language) files created with a text editor. HTML is similar to word processors prior to the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) generation. Directly editing HTML allows precise control over the contents, but requires more work than using a HTML authoring program. Of course I use my favorite text editor, the GeniusWriter.

The website is coded in HTML 4.01 transitional and checked with the W3C Markup Validation Service. Transitional means that the pages make use of some HTML features that have been superseded by newer features, but are likely to remain in use for a long time. All pages conform to the W3C standard, implying that the website should render properly on all browsers.

I've purposely avoided the use of cookies, Javascript, Java, and plug-ins. These aren't needed in a simple website. Enabling these features in one's browser exposes one to potential privacy and security risks.

The appearance of the pages is checked using the Firefox and Epiphany web browsers. Since 90% of web surfers use Microsoft Internet Explorer, I do occasionally check that the pages render properly on IE. The pages should look fine at 1024x768 resolution, and I view them at 1600x1200 resolution.

Graphics

Graphics are either GIF or PNG files for line drawings, or JPEG files for photographs. These were edited with my own bitmap editor and the GIMP. Graphics files from earlier versions of the website were edited with Microsoft Paint and PolyView. Most graphics required only cropping, resizing, and file format conversion.

Computer

I do all my work on a Dell Dimension 8300 with a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 2 GBytes of memory, 400 GBytes of disk, and an ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card. This is a blazingly fast computer! It's amazing how far computers have come since I first started using computers in the late 1970s.

The computer runs the Slackware Linux operating system. Linux is very good for software development.

Hosting

Finally, I upload the files to 2MHost's web servers, where the bits are served to you and other visitors. It's easier to have 2MHost host the website rather than for me to maintain my own web server.