Web-centric Computing

Resources

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[Resources sitemap]

These resources are not supplied by the professor. See also the materials which the professor supplies to help you.

The resources are organized in three major sections:

1. Software Resources

2. Readings

3. Websites About Selected Topics

At the end is information about this webpage.

Software Resources

[Course | Announcements | Materials | Resources]
Resources: [Software | Readings | Websites]

Tools for Constructing Websites

• Dave Ragget's HTML Tidy
  • available as /opt/bin/tidy on torch
  • documentation at W3C
• DC-dot Dublin Core metadata editor from UKOLN

Tools for Checking Websites

• W3C HTML Validator
  • at Dal FCS
  • at W3C
• W3C CSS Validator
  • CSS Validator at W3C
  • (might be installed at Dal later)
• Accessibility Valet
  • Accessibility Valet at Dal (password protected)

Tools for Exploring Network Protocols

• APEx homepage

See Also

See also: demonstrations, examples, and documentation in the materials section

Readings

[Course | Announcements | Materials | Resources]
Resources: [Software | Readings | Websites]
Readings: [A. Articles | B. Textbooks | C. Tutorials | D. References ]

• A. Articles

  Missing Articles

  might be available in archive form from wayback machine at Internet Archive.

  About Metcalfe's Law

  Related to: WWW Goals Lecture

  1. Metcalfe's Law by Charles Boyd for Management 487 at Southwest Missouri State University
  2. Metcalfe's Law in Reverse by Jakob Nielsen in alertbox (25 July 1999)

  About HTML and CSS Rendering Modes

  Related to: HTML Basics & CSS lectures

  Eric Meyer on CSS:Picking a Rendering Mode

  About Google Technology

  Related to: Search Engine lecture

  The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine

  by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page

  an archived copy

  Security

  From Linux Magazine (Sept. 2002)

  • Hackproofing Your Web Applications Or, How I Learned to Start Worrying and Love Security by Arturo Bejar
  • Processing Web Forms Carefully by Randal Schwartz
    • version at author's website

  About Metadata and the Future of the WWW

  Related to: metadata lecture

  About Metadata …

  See also: websites about content-based proxies and labels below

  The Semantic Web

  by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila in Scientific American magazine for May 2001 (volume 284, number 5), pages 34 – 43

  (no local on-line copy available)

  Search on the Semantic Web

  by Li Ding et al.in IEEE Computer magazine for October 2005 (volume 38, number 10), pages 62 – 69

  <DOI:10.1109/MC.2005.350>

  RDF: The Resource Description Framework

  by Bob Ducharme in Dr. Dobb's Journal magazine for April 2005, pages 38 – 41

  (no local copy available)

  Metadata for the masses: what is it, how can it help me, and how can I use it?

  by Paul Miller

  (local copy of Miller article)

  Building a Metadata-Based Website

  by Brett Lider and Anca Mosoiu at Boxes and Arrows website (21 Apr. 2003)

  (no local copy available)

  About Filtering Proxies

  Related to: proxy lecture

  About Filtering Proxies

  See also:

  • websites about content-based proxies and labels below, and
  • Metadata readings above too

  PICS: Internet Access Controls Without Censorship

  by Paul Resnick and James Miller

  (original copy of article in ACM Digital Library)

  About Hit Counters

  Related to: CGI lecture

  Hit Counters: How they work, or don't work

  by David K. Every

  (local copy of article by Every)

  About Processing Forms

  Related to: CGI and security lectures

  Processing Web Forms Carefully

  by Randal Schwartz in Linux Magazine (Sept. 2002)

  About Accessibility Issues

  Bridging the gap: between accessibility and usability

  by Mary Frances Theofanos and Janice (Ginny) Redish in interactions for November+December 2003 (volume 10, number 6), pages 36 – 51

  Death of the Websafe Color Palette?

  by David Lehn and Hadley Stern at Webmonkey (6 September 2000)

  Ajax

  Ajax tutorials etc.

  are listed below in the website section

  Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications by Jesse James Garrett (18 Feb. 2005)

  Very Dynamic Web Interfaces by Drew McLellan (09 Feb. 2005)

  The Ajaxian blog

• B. Textbook Websites

  HTTP: The Definitive Guide

  joes-hardware.com

  Network Programming with Perl by Lincoln D. Stein

  NPP homepage,

  NPP errata list

  The XHTML 1.0 Web Development Sourcebook: Building Better Sites and Applications by Ian Graham

  XHTML WDS website

  The XHTML 1.0 Language and Design Sourcebook: The Next Generation of HTML by Ian Graham

  XHTML L&DS website

  Perl: The Programmer's Companion by Nigel Chapman

  P:TPC website

• C. Tutorial Materials

  LearningCentre directory

  Copies of examples and notes by Teaching Assistants and Learning Centre personnel

• D. Other References

  List of reference books

  (in a separate HTML document)

  Safari Tech Books Online (the Dal FCS E-book collection)

  The collection changes over time but it probably includes books about WWW programming right now

  Programming the Perl DBI: Database Programming with Perl (Chapter 4: Programming the DBI) by Alligator Descartes & Tim Bunce

  A sample chapter from O'Reilly and Associates, publishers

Websites

[Course | Announcements | Materials | Resources]
Resources: [Software | Readings | Websites]
Websites: [WWW | HTML | XML | JS | CSS | UIs | Perl | SSI | CGI | Cookies | Servlets | HTTP | Proxy | Apps | Others ]

• WWW
  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  • Next Generation HTML: Acronym Expander by Ken Sall
  • Programmer's Resources (former Netscape DevEdge website)
    • mozilla Developer center beta
    • archive of older DevEdge content
• HTML & XHTML
  • HTML 4.0 Specification (at W3C)
  • XHTML^™ 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (at W3C)
  • Examples: XHTML section of examples list
  • Selected Extensions
    • XForms (at W3C)
    • MathML (at W3C)
• XML
  • The XML Cover Pages (by Robin Cover)
  • RDF
    • Dave Beckett's Resource Description Framework Resource Guide
    • RDF Primer edited by F. Manola and E. Miller (at W3C)
    • Dublin Core Metadata Scheme
      • DC-dot metadata editor
      • DC-dot metadata editor and DC assist
      • NLM Metadata Schema
      • See also:
        • Metadata and Applications Technologies websites below, and
        • Readings about Metadata (and the Semantic Web) above
  • RSS
    • The RSS section of webreference.com
  • Ajax
    • At IBM developerWorks: Mastering Ajax (series) by Brett McLaughlin
      1. Part 1, Introduction
      2. Part 2, Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax
      3. Part 3, Advanced requests and responses
         • Beware of the use of innerHTML: See the Alternatives to InnerHTML article, above.
      4. Part 4, Exploiting DOM for Web response
      5. etc.
    • Alternate Ajax Techniques by Nicholas C. Zakas at webreference.com
    • Dynamic HTML and XML: The XMLHttpRequest Object at Apple Computer's Developer Connection website
    • AJAX: Getting Started at mozilla developer center
    • AJAX Tutorial at w3schools.com
    • Ajax categoryat swik.net
    • See also
      • Ajax readings, above
      • AJAX Debugging with Firebug by Joe Hewitt in DDJ (10 Jan. 2007)
• Javascript
  • Javascript Developer Central at mozilla developer center (beta)
  • Javascript pointers at Mozilla.org
  • Debugging JavaScript by Makiko Itoh (Web Review 06 Oct. 2000)
  • Alternatives to InnerHTML by Steven G. Chipman (at slayeroffice.com)
  • JavaScript section of Peter-Paul Koch's homepage
  • Javascript section of examples list
  • Javascript: The Definitive Guide at the Dal FCS e-book collection
  • DOM
    • level 0 DOM (at Peter-Paul Koch's homepage)
    • Object Model webpage (at W3C)
    • Dynamic Content With DOM-2 (at Apple Developer website)
  • Favelets
    • bookmarklets (by Jesse Ruderman)
    • favelets.com
  • Ajax
    • See Ajax in the XML website list
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
  • Documentation
    • CSS2 Specification (at W3C)
    • archived copy of Correctly using titles with external style sheets by Eric A. Meyer (from Netscape devedge)
    • How to hide CSS from buggy browsers (at w3development.de) 2005-12-07
  • Tutorials and notes
    • CSS2 tutorial (at RichInStyle.com)
    • Selectutorial: CSS selectors (at Max Design)
    • CSS Tutorials at W3Schools
    • The CSS Positioning Model (floats and boxes) by Mike Hall at BrainJar
  • Examples and templates
    • CSS Pointers Group
    • Box Lessons CSS layout templates by Owen Briggs
    • Ruthsarian Layouts
    • CSS Layout Techniques: for fun and profit (at glish.com)
  • At this website
    • CSS section of examples list
    • CSS handout (in Lecture subsection of Materials section)
    • demonstrations (in the Materials section)
• User Interface Issues
  • WAI Guidelines (and link to checklist too)
    • Note: ironically, this site can be hard to navigate
  • Web Design Guidelines (by the U.S. National Cancer Institute)
  • Useit.com (by Jakob Nielsen)
  • Accessibility Resources (ACM Special Interest Group on Computers and the Physically Handicapped)
  • Seven tricks that Web users don't know (by Carolyn Snyder (of Snyder Consulting) at ibm.com)
    • (local copy of Seven Tricks … article)
  • Statistical profiles of highly-rated web sites by M. Y. Ivory and M. A. Hearst (in ACM CHI Conference 2002)
  • Designing Universally Accessible WWW Resources for People with Disabilities course website at University of Illinois
• Perl
  • Reference Resources
    • Perl Mongers
    • Perl Documentation at perldoc.com

      local copies of some materials from perldoc.com

      (copies are courtesy of archive.org)

      main perl frequently asked questions list (version 5.6)

      section 4 of perl frequently asked questions list (version 5.6)

      the pack function (version 5.6)

    • Perl language homepage (by O'Reilly & Associates).
  • Programming Resources
    • CPAN (the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network)
  • Learning Resources
    • Materials from Singer Wang's tutorial (in June 2003)
    • Introduction to Perl by Guoping Qiu
    • Learning Perl: An Overview For Novices by Martin Heller (from Byte magazine)
    • Ten Perl Myths by Simon Cozens
    • Copies of articles from The Perl Journal are available online. The recommended articles are about:
      • common errors new perl coders make
        • Perl Heresies: No, That's Wrong by Jeff Pinyan
      • mod_perl
        • Stately scripting with mod_perl by Lincoln Stein and Doug MacEachern
        • A Web Proxy Module for mod_perl by Lincoln D. Stein
      • CGI programming in perl:
        • Die-ing on the Web by brian&#160;d&#160;foy
    • Examples
      • Examples from Tim Furlong's tutorial
      • perl 5 section in examples list
  • Perl & CGI
    • CGI.pm webpages by Lincoln Stein
    • Beginner's Guide to CGI Scripting with Perl
  • See also
    • See also debugging CGI section, below
    • See also the CGI section, below
• Server Side Includes (SSI)
  • Apache HTTP Server
    • mod_include documentation (detailed specifications)
    • Apache Tutorial: Introduction to Server Side Includes
    • Appendix E: Syntax for Server-Side Includes from Ian Graham's The XHTML 1.0 Web development Sourcebook website
    • SSI section in examples list
• Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
  • Documentation
    • CGI Overview at NCSA
    • CGI Specification at NCSA
    • CGI RFC Project page
  • Other CGI Resources
    • CGI Resource Index
    • CGI section in examples list
  • About MIME Types used in CGI generated webpages
    • excerpt from XHTML 1.0 Web Development Sourcebook by Ian S. Graham
    • list of types and relevant RFCs
    • patch for Internet Explorer
  • Debugging
    • In the System Documentation subsection of the Materials section:
      • CGI tips for torch.cs.dal by Chris Maxwell
      • Debugging CGI under Unix (The Idiot's Guide to Solving Perl CGI Problems by Tom Christiansen)
    • In the list of examples (in the Materials section):
      • the advice2.pl script
    • But it's still not working! in the Apache CGI documentation
  • See also the Perl & CGI section, above
• Cookies
  • archived copy of Cookie Specification roundup at Bell Labs courtesy of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
  • Cookie specification at netscape site
  • Cookies section of archive copy of CGI.pm docs
  • How to set cookies with CGI.pm at about.com
  • RFC 2965 -- HTTP State Management Mechanism (copy at faqs.org)
  • CGI cookies with perl section in examples list
  • See also: CGI website list, above
  • Privacy Policies
    • Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project webpage (at W3C)
• Java Servlets
  • Server-Side Web Applications using Java Servlets versions 2.1/2.2 and JavaServer Pages (JSP) version 1.0: A Tutorial by Marty Hall (at INT Media Group's JavaBoutique)
    • Examples from that site
  • Java Servlet Technology - Technical Resources from Sun Microsystems 2005-11-10
  • Servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP) 1.0: A Tutorial by Marty Hall
  • servlet section in examples list
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
  • RFC 1945 -- HTTP/1.0 (copy at faqs.org)
  • RFC 2616 -- HTTP/1.1 (copy at faqs.org)
  • RFC 2145 -- Use and Interpretation of HTTP Version Numbers (copy at faqs.org)
  • HTTP 1.1: What's in it for Me? by Lincoln D. Stein (Web Techniques, Aug., 1997)
  • Web Client Programming with Perl by Clinton Wong
• HTTP and IP Proxies
  • RFCs
    • RFC 3143 -- Known HTTP Proxy/Caching Problems (copy at faqs.org)
    • RFC 1919 -- Classical versus Transparent IP Proxies (copy at faqs.org)
  • Sample Code and Commentary
    • How to be Virtually Anonymous is an example of a simple proxy by Randal Schwartz (Web Techniques, Feb. 1997)
    • Preforking and Compressing Proxy is an extension to the simple proxy to include pre-forking and compression by Randal Schwartz (Web Techniques, Feb. 1999)
  • Content-based proxies and labels
    • Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) at W3C
    • Internet Content Rating Association^® (ICRA)
    • ICRA^™ and RSACi^™ decoder at ICRA website
• Applications
  • Blogs
    • definition of weblog by Jill Walker (for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory)
    • An introduction to weblog terms for weblog readers by Phil Gyford
  • Vizualization of webpage and website structures
    • An Atlas of Cyberspaces website
    • infovis category at infosthetics.com
    • aesthetic category at infosthetics.com
  • Hypertext (and hypermedia)
    • definitions of hypertext by J. Blustein
• Others (cross-references to the above list)
  • Favelets: see Javascript websites
  • DOM (domain object model): see Javascript websites
  • Privacy policies: see cookies websites
  • RDF (resource description framework, intended for metadata): see XML websites
  • RSS (rich site summary, used for syndicating web site content): see XML websites
  • Primarily Client-side Technologies
    • HTML & XHTML (markup languages),
    • Javascript (JS),
    • Cascading style sheets (CSS),
    • User interfaces (UIs).
  • Primarily Server-side Technologies
    • Perl (programming language),
    • server-side include (SSI),
    • Cookies,
    • Servlets.
  • Technologies That Lie Between Client and Server
    • Ajax is a subsection of the XML website list,
    • Common gateway interface (CGI),
    • HTTP (network protocol),
    • Proxies.
  • Metadata and Application Technologies
    • WWW,
    • PICS in Proxies,
    • P3P in cookies websites,
    • RSS in XML websites, and
    • XML (tools for creating and using new markup languages);
    • See also metadata readings, and Dublin Core websites above.

Websites: [WWW | HTML | XML | JS | CSS | UIs | Perl | SSI | CGI | Cookies | Servlets | HTTP | Proxy | Apps | Others ]
Resources: [Software | Readings | Websites]
[Course | Announcements | Materials | Resources]