About Links To Other Web Sites

While there are exceptions, most of the companies, organizations, and individuals I've provided links to are ones I've had personal experience with and can recommend. For the small number of sites which are exceptions I check each thoroughly before providing a link to it. In particular I look for uniqueness, quality of content, and for the absence of any material that might be considered offensive or objectionable. However, it is sometimes impossible to check every page and link provided on someone else's site. And, naturally, Web sites are changed and updated all the time. So, if you should discover any problems in the above regard, either with links that are no longer valid, or with content, please help by making me aware of it. Thanks!

About This Web Site

As mentioned on the Homepage my purpose for designing this site was and is primarily to make sure that my Internet skills and knowledge stay current and continue to grow, and as a way of sharing information with others. Likewise, this site will grow in scope, complexity, and function as time goes by.

I very much believe in the KISS principle: "Keep It Super Simple." (I don't really like using the words "stupid" or "dummy," there are already enough books that do that!) I also happen to be a firm believer in standardization. Therefore, the main design goals for this site are: 1) the use of "standard" HTML (HyperText Markup Language) wherever possible so that it can be accessed even by those who aren't running the latest browsers; 2) efficiency in HTML coding so that pages load quickly; 3) the use of good typography to make the pages easy on the eye and easy to follow; and, 4) to present the information provided on this site in a manner that is easy to understand, even for someone who may be fairly new to computers and/or the Internet.
This site is content oriented, so design goals 2 and 3 (pages that load quickly and are easy to read) take precedence here over trying to wow the reader with splashy graphics or animations. One of the first rules of good typography is to avoid making the background, areas surrounding text, or the text itself too busy by the indiscriminate use of graphics or special effects. (For advertising and/or marketing purposes, the rules are slightly different.) As I have time I may add to the site one or more picture and/or graphics galleries designed to show off advanced Web design and programming techniques.

Oh, by the way, one of the best features of HTML is the ability to place hyperlinks in the text for jumping from one place on the Web to another, or from file to file, or even from one part of a page to another place on the same page. You'll see the first two in use on my site, but not much of the last one (jumping from place to place on the same page). That's because for some documents such as references, legal citations and statutes, etc. continuous by nature and usually divided by section or revision numberstheir length makes them too long to conveniently scroll through without getting lost. Instead, wherever possible, I prefer to break up the subjects on my Web pages into a number of smaller sections and subsections, which are easier to manage and short enough so that you can easily scroll from top to bottom. Sometimes, when it comes to using a "neat" feature in less than ideal ways, the best use of that program tool or feature is to plan well enough so that it isn't needed!

My personal preference as far as Web browsers go is Microsoft's Internet Explorer (currently version 5.0). And while I try to stick with "global" standards whenever possible, if any coding is necessary beyond that possible with standard HTML such code will be optimized for that browser.

Since programming is something that I enjoy I originally built this site by hand coding it using Allaire's Homesite, the very best software available for working with HTML code directly. However, I knew the time would come when the site would grow too large to make hand coding practical and that time arrived quite some time ago!

While previous versions of FrontPage were often viewed by many, including me, as a tool aimed largely at the novice, improvements in the 2000 version combined with the ability to merge its functionality with Microsoft's Visual InterDev (one of the most advanced Web development tools available) means that both will be used for future Web-development work on this site.

Especially for certain highly content oriented sites (ones with lots of text), the ideal solution is one where most or all of an organization's text and documents are created and maintained in a format native to HTML. In other words, instead of creating text only to have to then modify it for conversion to HTML and use on the Web (or company Intranet), create all text and documents using an approach that allows direct conversion to HTML at any time.
The best (and only standardized) way to achieve this is through the use of either SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), or XML (Extensible Markup Language). That's why more and more software companies (including Microsoft) are adding XML/SGML support to their product lines. As this site grows larger you can expect in the near future to see more and more of its pages created using this approach; and as such pages are added I'll provide details on the software and techniques used to create them!

More information on SGML and XML can be found elsewhere on this Web site under the topic: "Document Management," accessible from the Homepage Main Menu, or by clicking on the link below.

Document Management

There is also a great deal of information both on the Web and in print about Web site design and programming in HTML. (In the very near future I'll be adding new links here to the best resources for Web development and learning!)

For the latest "inside scoop" on recent or upcoming changes and improvements to this site, you may also want to see what is under "What's New?," accessible from the Homepage Main Menu, or by clicking on the link below:

What's New?

Enjoy!