HTML, the hypertext markup language, is the formatting language associated with the World Wide Web. Your home page should use a few HTML instructions for readability; if you want to include links to other Web pages then you must use some simple HTML.
Note that documents do not need to be formatted in HTML to be made available through the World Wide Web. In particular, you can offer preprints or announcements in several other forms.
You must make the default directory in which our Web server can find your home page and any other files you wish to make available to the Web public. Use these commands at the Unix shell prompt on the Mathematics Department computers to create an appropriate directory.
cd $HOME mkdir public_html cd public_html
If your default permissions for files are especially restrictive then you may need to follow the commands above with one which changes the access modes for the public_html subdirectory and for your home directory.
chmod go+rx $HOME/public_html chmod go+x $HOME
(Security Note: These access permissions allow all other users to cd into your home directory, but not necessarily to list its contents; all other users are allowed to cd into your public_html directory and to list its contents. Our Web server will treat your public_html directory as though it is your home directory, so outsiders do not have access to course files or other sensitive materials if you do not place them under the public_html directory.)
You may also need to change access modes for individual files as you add files to this directory.
Your home page, by convention, is the file index.html in your public_html subdirectory. You can prepare this file with any text editor.
Here is a sample home page which demonstrates a few of the HTML features you might want to use. (You could start work on your own home page by using the mouse to select and copy the example below from your Web browser window to an editor window.)
<HTML><head><TITLE> Webster's home page </TITLE></head>
<body>
<H1> Welcome to the Home Page of W. W. Webster </H1>
Some writers include their addresses, phone numbers, and other basic information in these pages. Lists of papers and links to preprints are common on Web pages. <P>
The unnumbered list below shows some links to Web sites and files.<P>
<H2>Table of Contents</H2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.math.ufl.edu/">
UF Mathematics Home Page </A>
<LI> <A HREF="ftp://ftp.math.ufl.edu/">
UF Mathematics Anonymous FTP</A>
<LI> <A HREF="myfile">
A file in W. W. Webster's public_html directory </A>
</UL>
The material below is a sample of preformatted material, inserted between appropriate flags. <P>
<PRE>
I. This outline
A. is a sample
B. of preformatted
1. material
a. incorporated
b. within
2. an HTML
II. document
</PRE>
This page was created by W. W. Webster (my@email.address.here).<P>
This page was last modified on December 31, 1899.<P>
</body>
</HTML>
HTML is a high-level (in other words -- coarse) mark up language which uses a limited number of "tags" to indicate the structure of a document. Web readers act as interpreters for this markup language and should be case-insensitive when processing tags.
The list below gives terse explanations of constructions used in the sample document. Note that HTML instructions usually indicate logical structure in a document and do not necessarily prescribe appearance.
http://www.math.ufl.edu/ ftp://ftp.math.ufl.edu/are samples of Uniform Resource Locators. The first one specifies the math.ufl.edu World Wide Web server and the second one specifies our anonymous FTP server. Note that these URL's begin with a protocol specification (http or ftp).
<A HREF="course/syllabus"> MAC 3311 Syllabus </A>which would refer to the file "syllabus" in the "course" subdirectory of your "public_html" directory.
You might be wondering what sorts of documents W. W. Webster could offer through links to files, and how another user's Web reader will handle them. Lots of document formats will work, including plain ASCII files produced by text editors, HTML files produced by a text editor or by specialized tools, TeX dvi files, PostScript files, or even files from word processors.
The catch is that the only sorts of files you can expect every user's Web reader to cope with are plain ASCII files and HTML files. More specialized formats usually require outboard display programs, such as TeX and PostScript previewers or a word processor, and these have to be configured into a Web reader as options. File name suffixes such as .html, .htm, .dvi, .ps, .eps, or .pdf are usually the distinguishing mark for different document types.
Within the Math department you can count on our Xmosaic software to support TeX dvi files, PostScript files (.ps or .eps), Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf), and images in the JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) formats. Our Netscape installation is probably less completely configured, while Lynx is a text-only Web reader.
It is polite and useful to date and sign your home page, as in the example above. You might even want to timestamp documents which are subject to frequent revision.
If you make course material available through your Web page, you should probably use links to separate files and locate these items early in the page so that essential material is easy to find.
We haven't discussed the inclusion of graphics in Web pages in this short introduction. See the references at the UF CISE Web information pages. for advice on graphics and more HTML commands.
Offering a document on the World Wide Web is usually understood as a form of publication. You may wish to claim your copyright in a notice within a document, and when offering preprints of papers on the Web you should be aware that some publishers (in fields other than mathematics, at least so far) treat Web release as prior publication.
Be warned that the less-than <, greater-than >, and ampersand & characters are control characters within HTML, so that plain text files processed by Web readers may break if these characters appear within them. It always pays to preview your Web offerings on two or more different Web readers to look for these and other oddities.
You can view your home-page-in-progress with any Web reader. For example, you could type xmosaic index.html to the shell prompt in an X Windows terminal window to display your index.html file under xmosaic.
After you have previewed your home page and have decided that it is ready for public display, you should send mail to www@math.ufl.edu to ask that your home page be added to the department's list of faculty home pages.
You can also maintain a page in semi-secret if you prefer not to advertise it widely, but be advised that anyone on the Web will ordinarily be able to consult your page if they learn where to find it.
Your uniform resource locator will be http://www.math.ufl.edu/~username/, where `username' should be replaced by your login name for the Mathematics Department computers.
You can learn a lot more about HTML and Web documents through materials available on the UF CISE Web information pages.
If you see features or formatting on another Web page which you want to understand or emulate, look at the source file for the document using your Web reader. (For example, under Xmosaic you could select "File/View Source" from the menu bar; in Lynx, touch the backslash (`\') key; and in Netscape you should select "View/Source" from the menu bar.) You should respect the wishes of other authors who have copyrighted text or images or who ask you not to copy such materials, but feel free to learn from the document designs of others.
This brief introduction was written by C. Stark (cws@math.ufl.edu). Send comments to him or to www@math.ufl.edu.
The Math department computer consultants can't render much assistance with home pages and HTML questions. Some excellent resources are available through the link above to the Computer Science Department's Web pages.
Finally, the material you exhibit through your Web page is your responsibility, not the Department's. Remember that Web documents are published in one of the most widely distributed media of the modern world.