Re: learning HTML

Charles,

If I understand this correctly, you are saying that the time has come for
the Authoring tools to be more sophisticated because more people are using
them as compared to the small minority of people who actually write the code
from scratch.  Well, I agree more people don't hand code as compared to
those who do. The more I speak with other web authors, the more I find that
they all use some kind of editor for doing their sites.  I find it difficult
to use an editor for writing html because when I put them through the
validators I use, I end up having to rewrite so much to make them
accessible.  Yet, when I write my own html code, I have no problem with it
passing accessibility standards.

So, I believe that since the majority use Authoring tools, these tools
should be developed with accessibility standards built in.  Maybe even throw
in a tutorial in the readme file about what the code is used for and why.

As I am not an expert on this, these only only my thoughts.

Joyce Taylor


-----Original Message-----
From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
To: WAI IG <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Date: Sunday, April 09, 2000 6:33 AM
Subject: learning HTML


>Just some personal thoughts at the moment. Comments are invited
(obviously).
>
>I have been teaching HTML almost since i started learning it, and I have
>always taught people how to write HTML code as the way to make sure that
the
>results suppor accessibility. But I have come to believe that most people
>writing HTML should not bother with source code.
>
>It is important to know how to use the language (as it is ith english, or
>italian, or C++), but there are tools which mean it is not important to
know
>the underlying code. THis is similar to most modern wod-processors - it is
>imortant to know how to use them, but it doesn't really matter how they
>represent the information about what is a heading or a presentation
>style. This is kind of unsurprising really - it was designed to be editied
>with WYSIWYG tools (or audio equivalents - What You Hear Is What You might
>Get, or whatever).
>
>So I am thinking about how to update the tutorial stuff I wrote a coupleof
>years ago to take account of this.
>
>There will always be a role for people who understand the underlying code
>inside out - it is one way to make sure you are writing things correctly,
and
>it is essential if you are going to develop software. But that is a very
>small minority of people using it. It seems to me that the effort would be
>better spent in finding better Authoring Tools.
>
>I wrote a couple of pages for Amaya (the W3C authoring tool, which is a
>test-bed rather than a product, but the tool I have used for almost
>everything I create on the web over the last year) on how to write HTML
>well. They are part of the help files, but are also on the Web -
>http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/HTML-elements/infotypes is a general
>introduction to writing HTML (that doesn't mention angle brackets at all)
and
>there is a page on Accessibiltiy in Amaya at
>http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/Access
>
>Thoughts?
>
>Charles McCN
>
>--
>Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134
136
>W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
>Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053
>Postal: GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne 3001,  Australia
>
>

Received on Sunday, 9 April 2000 13:37:37 UTC