What is this lab about?

• learning the first set of developer tools (Web Developer toolbar, XML Developer toolbar, Firebug)
• starting to think about structure of web pages
  • thus we focus on the languages that describe the skeletal elements of the document objects we will construct, namely HTML, XHTML and XML.
• learning the lab process itself (duh...)

What should you be writing about?

• what you did - narrate the process, step by step.
• record detailed notes about the tools you used at each step - tremendously important in web development. What browser, OS, etc., etc., each time you record an observation.
• what you thought - what questions floated through your head, no matter how silly or irrelevant they might seem. 'who, how, why, where, what questions...'
• very important to take the time to explore unfamiliar vocabulary and concept. Be sure you keep track of what sources you referenced. A great way to do this is to link back to the source in the flow of your writing, just like you see in papers. Do the same thing for pictures, graphs, code segments. The idea is to develop the ability to see how your work fits into the larger work, and then be able to explain how it fits in. In time, you'll learn how to advocate for the resources you need to pursue the work you want to do, whether it's just time on the job, or other personnel to chip in, cold cash for more. First step, though, is to track where you see existing ideas and hang on to that knowledge as you write/draw/dream/build/play.

Step by step (Part A)

1. configure your workspace
   1. install the Web Developer's Toolbar
   2. install the XML Developer's Toolbar
   3. install Firebug
   4. you might be tempted to install Selenium IDE and play with it at this time - don't! If you want to start with an automated testing addon, install Molybdenum instead. Molyb is a lighter front-end to the same heavy-duty industrial grade selenium core backend that Selenium IDE also uses. Molyb is intended both for preliminary testing when the complexity of Selenium IDE really isn't needed, and as a system to help folks get started with a web test-driven development harness.
   5. take a look around at the wild'n'wooly world of plugins. Feel free to try other plugins, as well. Anything look particularly interesting? Anything you'd like us to explore in the class?
2. construct a page of your own in HTML
   1. validate it (using the validator in the web developers toolbar)
      • what, exactly, is happening when the page is being validated? Do your best to describe the process
      • how does validation compare to compilation? another way to put this question is: why don't we compile HTML instead of validating it? (Personally, I find this much easier to explain using flowcharts, but that's just me.)
      • any comments on any errors you experienced and on the feedback you got on those errors?
   2. now wander around the web, looking for HTML (as opposed to XHTML). When you find some poor schmuck with a website encoded in HTML, try to validate their HTML.
      • do the sites usually validate? come close? any consistent types of errors?
      • as you look at more and more of these, do any patterns emerge?
3. Now, go back through all the parts of step 1, except for XHTML instead of HTML. In other words,
   1. construct and validate a page of your own in XHTML
      • what, exactly, ....
      • how does this validation process compare to the process for HTML?
      • how does this validation process compare to compilaton (as above)
   2. wander the web aimlessly, looking for XHTML in the wild to validate.
      • do they usually validate? come close? patterns in types of errors?
      • how does your experience with them compare to your experience with HTML pages in the wild?

Reflexive Questions

1. Take a moment and reflect upon firefox with the web developer's toolbar and any other plugins you used in this lab. How does this environment compare to other IDE (Integrated Development Environments) that you may have used in the past, such as MS Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.? If you haven't used IDEs, you may want to talk to some classmates about their experiences and think about how that compares to your own.
2. What's your reaction to all the different ways the Web Developer's Toolbar (and the XML Developer's Toolbar and Firebug, if you've played with them, yet) present the same information? Take some aspect of a web page and identify three or four ways that the Web Developer's Toolbar will help you visualize that information. Do some help you more than others? Do you understand why? Can you explain it? Make Jenny and me understand
3. We talked in class one day about the idea of each programming language having a few basic 'organizational principles'
   • purpose of the language
   • fundamental syntactical design
   1. we went over the organizing principles of HTML and XHTML. What are they? If you missed that day, ask folks who were here. In any case, what is important is that you explain it following the method discussed in the ConstructivistGlossary.
4. You did the same page in XHTML as in HTML, which gave you your first look at XML indirectly. Take a minute and work your way back to the DTD for HTML and XHTML. Spend a little while exploring each of the DTDs. They look very different from each other, because HTML is written in SGML and XHTML is written in XML. What is your first impression of navigating your way around the two DTDs? Be honest, just tell us what you think.
5. Having worked a bit with XML, both with the above question (and having done the XML tutorial last week), what do you think are the organizing principles for XML? (Again, this is ConstructivistGlossary stuff.)

Lab Reports

• Students can be found @ "ExploringTerrainStudentLabReports"
• there's talk of a class standard for linking lab reports, peer evals, and preps to student homepages in WebDevFall08. Check with SoniaJeswani for more info

Exploring the Terrain due dates

• rough draft due Thursday, October 9th
• Peer Eval due midnight, Friday, October 10th
• HilaryHolz has a due date to find you an XML tool that integrates smoothly with Firefox 3 (not just 2) by midnight, Friday, October 10th
  • Hilary really wants to have you include some additional parts to this lab in your final version, but that depends on her meeting her deadline. More to come...
• In the end, the global consensus on XML tools was Firefox 2 with the XML developer's toolkit, so we added some more reflective questions and closed this out.
• Final version due midnight Thursday, October 16th, be at class or you are toast!