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Dear all,<br><br>
FYI: I'm hosting The Macromedia Boston Users Group (MMBUG) meeting
tomorrow at 6pm (sorry for late notice). MIT web publishers are
encouraged to attend!<br><br>
Susan <br><br>
Who: Roland Crowl<br>
<br>
About: CSS Applied to <a href="http://www.mmboston.org/">MMBUG<br>
</a> <br>
When: Weds, December 9, 6 p.m.<br>
<br>
Where: MIT
<a href="http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E60&Buildings=go">Building
E60, Room 225</a><br><br>
DETAILS<br><br>
Roland Crowl has rebuilt the MMBUG website to fit XHTML 1.0 and CSS
standards. Gone are the tables for layout purposes. Gone are
<font>, <b>, and other tags the W3C never did like but
tolerated because they got steamrollered by the browser
developers.<br><br>
W3C has reestablished control over its invention by separating function
and appearance into two different but interrelated standards. Strict
XHTML eliminates the tags and attributes which control appearance and
turns all that over to CSS. CSS gives you unprecedented control over the
appearance of your page (not total control, because the various browsers
have different interpretations of the standards).<br><br>
The most basic control is single-edit site-wide changes to color, font,
leading, and kerning, as well as intermediate and local controls. But
more exotic controls are possible. Tables can be replaced with CSS
positioning controls, though they're not as easy and straightforward. You
can also change the basic nature of a tag to create special effects. For
instance, the menu bar at the top of this page is an unordered list with
four list items.<br><br>
The principal advantage of CSS is simplified maintenance of websites.
Additional advantages involve different platforms and accessibility. With
handhelds and cellphones so popular developers may want to create
targeted page designs. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and
Federal Section 508 standards require CSS encoded pages for people with
disabilities, primarily the visually impaired (CSS is necessary but not
sufficient).<br><br>
We will take a look at the website in as much detail as participants want
to pursue. Download the main files we'll discuss if you want to prepare
beforehand. Those files and other supplemental information are at
<a href="http://www.mmboston.org/nonweb/" eudora="autourl">www.mmboston.org/nonweb/</a>.<br><br>
Roland Crowl is a programmer turned multimedia developer. He worked
initially with embedded computer systems and compilers, using various
assembly languages, Pascal, Ada, C, and PL/1, with exposure to the other
usual suspects--FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, APL, LISP, and probably
more.<br><br>
When a graphic artist turned multimedia person failed to deliver on a
project for his mother, he took over the project and learned Director and
Lingo in order to complete it. The result was The Botanical Language, a
CD-ROM reference and teaching tool for the terminology needed by every
botanist and useful to every gardener.<br><br>
He has since become involved in websites, with a special interest in
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