[Webpub] Meeting on Weds: CSS Applied to Website

[Susan MacPhee]

Dear all,

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!

Susan

Who: Roland Crowl

About: CSS Applied to <http://www.mmboston.org/>MMBUG

When: Weds, December 9, 6 p.m.

Where: MIT 
<http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E60&Buildings=go>Building E60, 
Room 225

DETAILS

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.

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).

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.

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).

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 
www.mmboston.org/nonweb/.

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.

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.

He has since become involved in websites, with a special interest in CSS. 
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