Memorandum
Date: February 25, 2003
To: Dr Peter Jordan, Professor of English, Tennessee State University
From: Ijeoma Nnodu, student, Tennessee State University
Subject: Web Practices
· The Nashville Tennessean
· IBM
· Microsoft
· Cisco
· Dell
The first web site that I researched is the Nashville Tennessean web site. This web site does not use doctype declaration. However, it uses HTML declaration. Some of the techniques that the designer used in the Nashville Tennessean web site are Tables, Javascript, and Cascading style sheets. Also in the web site, the designer uses meta tags that appear at the beginning of the homepage. The meta tags implemented in the homepage displays the title and links of the web page. Lastly, the designer uses tags comments to show the copyright and pop-ups. The tag comments is represented with this symbol <!- ->.
Next web site that I researched is the IBM web site. The IBM web site uses the doctype declaration. This doctype declaration appears on the first line of the code and is declared using the HTML file type. The web site also uses transitional flavors that allow the use of deprecated tags. The designer uses Javascript to format the language and graphics to suit the choice of the designer. Cascading style sheets is also another technique used in the web site. In addition, the meta tags for the IBM web site appears at the beginning of the source code and are used for the expiration date, review, last update, description, title, and security. Finally, the designer does not use comments in the homepage.
Another web site that I researched is the Microsoft web site. Microsoft web site does not use doctype declaration. However, it uses the HTML file type for its source code. The web site neither uses transitional nor strict flavors for its homepage. Techniques used in this web site are Javascript and Cascading style sheets. Javascript usages were mainly for references and links. An example of the Javascript is to help the appearance of the homepage. Meta tags were also used by the web designer, which appears at the head of the source code. The designer uses comments to design the web site and they are represented in this form <!- -. They comments used was for better understanding of the source code.
Cisco is another web site that I researched. This web site uses the doctype declaration, which appears at the first line of the source code. Cisco web site is also declared using the HTML file type that is transitional. The designer of the web site also uses the Table technique to help map out the appearance of the homepage. In comparison with the appearance, meta tags were used and the appeared at the beginning of the homepage. The functions of the meta tags used were for time, date, content, title, name, docid, and docrequest. Cisco web site uses comments in the source code to emphasize what to see on the homepage. Finally, the tag comments give users more information about the code in the homepage. An example of the tag comment in the web site is <!--$Revision:1.32$-->.
Lastly is the Dell Web site, which uses doctype and HTML declaration. The declaration appears in the first line of the source code. The HTML file type also uses transitional flavor for its homepage. Some of the techniques used in the web site are Tables, Cascading style sheets and the Javascript. The Javascript used in the homepage is for the update of images. Also the meta tags used in the Dell web site appears at the head of the source code. Meta tags are used to give information about the description, content, segment, language, and the title. Finally, the web designer uses comments which are tagged like this <!-->. The information included in the comments is used for size and margins.
In conclusion, after researching these five web sites, I have gained better understanding of the techniques used in web design practices.