APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM

In the past I have used HTML but mainly as a way of learning Java. Applets are written in Java, and they are usually the animated GIFs. A java applet will simply call up a set of images in a given order and repeat this looping until the page is exited. I have used Publisher to create Web sites with year 8s at Kirkham and found it very easy to teach them how to create a site with a home page and three othrs all linked to one another. It also allows you to view in the browser and go straight back to the document when the browser is closed, amendments can be easily made and there is a wizard that optimises the performance of the page, to ensure proper layout etc. I then tried out Dreamweaver and found that in comparison there was little to compare between the two for a straightforward site. It was however a little clumsy in its design I thought so I decided to use only HTML. This was to improve my own ability in the use of the code and to revise JAVA and to an extent C++ but also to use some JavaScript and VBscript for control and to try out some interactivity with the use of message boxes. This tied in well with the Excel part of the assignment as I was revising VB and VBA also. Having opted for HTML I had to revise this also. I have got a VJ++ compilerwith an HTML editor in it but one cannot access this function unless testing an applet so I decided to use notepad. The first page that I did was the hardest, getting the sound file embedded and the message boxes working so that a user had to enter a name was quite a complicated logic problem and provided degree of client-server interaction which is something that I would like to learn more about. I was thus experimenting with the media as a foundation for future learning. I manged to write some functionasl VBScript and also wrote the applet that spins the globe around. Now the applet is written it can be used to display other files of images that could be created in a photo package. The sound files were created using a MIDI sequencer and a wave sample editor to distort the sound. MP3 would be better but I have no software to convert wav to MPEG as yet. I have only recentlt been connected to BT and so have not until very recently been able to acces the internet.

CONCLUSION

The project was one that I found to be very enjoyable, programming HTML is an art in itself and the syntax can get some getting used to. I have left the earlier pages as they were when I finished them. The syntax, so far as the use of caps is concerned is lazy. As I designed more pages the syntax has has become tidier. I think that the discipline needed to write HTML and to understand wht is behind the applications and to be able to fine tune the pages by editing the HTML is a valuable skill and designing the site was time well spent.