HTML The Definitive Guide (4 page)

Preface

We'd Like to Hear from You

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Is HTML 4.0 Really a Big

Acknowledgments

Deal?

Preface

Acknowledgments

We did not compose, and certainly could not have composed, this book without generous contributions from many people. Our wives Jeanne and Cindy (with whom we've just become reacquainted) and our young children Eva, Ethan, Courtney, and Cole (they happened
before
we started writing) formed the front lines of support. And there are numerous neighbors, friends, and colleagues who helped by sharing ideas, testing browsers, and letting us use their equipment to explore HTML. You know who you are, and we thank you all. (Ed Bond, we'll be over soon to repair your Windows.)

We also thank our technical reviewers, Kane Scarlett, Eric Raymond, and Chris Tacy, for carefully scrutinizing our work. We took most of your keen suggestions. And we especially thank Mike Loukides, our editor, who had to bring to bear his vast experience in book publishing to keep us two mavericks corralled.

We'd Like to Hear from You

1. HTML and the World Wide Web

Contents:

The Internet, Intranets, and Extranets

Talking the Internet Talk

HTML: What It Is

HTML: What It Isn't

Nonstandard Extensions

Tools for the HTML Designer

Though it began as a military experiment and spent its adolescence as a sandbox for academics and eccentrics, recent events have transformed the worldwide network of computer networks - also known as the Internet - into a rapidly growing and wildly diversified community of computer users and information vendors. Today, you can bump into Internet users of nearly any and all nationalities, of any and all persuasions, from serious to frivolous individuals, from businesses to nonprofit organizations, and from born-again evangelists to pornographers.

In many ways, the World Wide Web - the open community of hypertext-enabled document servers and readers on the Internet - is responsible for the meteoric rise in the network's popularity. You, too, can become a valued member by contributing: writing HTML documents and making them available to web "surfers" worldwide.