Assignment #1 - HTML Report

Write a report on some Internet topic in HTML.

Here are some examples of topics you might choose:

• Security on the Internet (firewalls, et all)
• History of the Internet
• Technical study of some important hunk of Internet software (i.e. how webservers work, how email works, how newsgroup servers work, etc.)
• How TCP/IP works
• A report on some markup language other than HTML (i.e. SGML)
• Some interesting group on the Internet (i.e. EFF, cDc, etc.)
• Topological study of Internet architecture (MAEs, NAP, etc.)
• A report on some other markup language

Here is a list of the HTML formatting that I expect to see in your report:

• Headings and sub-headings for organization where necessary
• Paragrgraph breaks
• Links to other pages or other places within your own report
• Some kind of list
• At least one table (Note: This does not have to be a "spreadsheet" style table, you can use tables for formatting the whole report by cutting it into sections.)
• Change the fonts somehow: bigger, smaller, different color, etc.

As this report will not be printed on paper, it is somewhat difficult to specify how long it should be. Here's a guideline to follow: Make the report long enough to adequately explain your topic. If you think you haven't explained your topic thoroughly enough, make it longer. If you think you're going to bore me, make it shorter.

You are allowed to use a word processor to write your report, so that you may take advantage of features such as spell-checking and thesaurus. However, you are NOT allowed to use any spiffy HTML-generating application; you can only use a text editor to mark-up your report, and a browser to view it in. The idea here is that you learn HTML, not that you learn how to use an HTML-generating app.

With that in mind, your HTML code should be clean and readable. Use indenting newlines, and whitespace where appropriate to make your code clean and legible. Also, use comments to label things like the starting and ending of big tables and the like. Here is the goal to shoot for: I should be able to read your report either in a browser or in a text editor and be able to read it perfectly either way.

Things to Remember

• The word "Internet" is capitalized.
• The words "Website", "Web page", and "World Wide Web" should be capitalized
• When you try to view your documents through your browser, be sure to simply enter http://zonker.cs.slcc.edu/~username/report.html. Be sure to substitute "username" with your own username. Remember that you never, ever need to put "public_html" into the URL.

Due Date

This assignment is due on February 11th, 1999.

Changelog

2/2/98 - Added a few suggestions to the list, added the "Things to Remember", added the allowance for using a word processor.

2/6/98 - Added the note about how to view your report through a browser (i.e. never put in public_html)