Building A Good Background for WDP-II

If you have taken WDP-I then you have excellent preparation for this class (WDP-II). Otherwise, you can still take WDP-II if you have enough experience with the Web and HTML. However, you need to fill in any holes in your background quickly during the first few weeks of class in order to take maximum advantage of the course materials and to perform well in the team project.

WDP Background

Here is a checklist to help you build up your background.

• You need to get a copy of the textbook which is largely used for WDP-I but is still useful for this class.

• XHTML: The XML-compliant version of HTML which is the current W3C recommendation. Your team project must conform to XHTML. This page gives the differences between XHTML and HTML 4.0. (ref: Chapters 2 and 3 of textbook)

• Visual form, Design basics, Information Architecture, Page Layout, and Typography. (ref: Chapters 4 and 5)

• Colors, Graphics, and CSS (ref: Chapter 6 and 7)

• HTML Forms and Server-side Programming with Perl. HTTP protocol basics. (ref: chapter 1 and 8)

• Client-side programming with ECMAScript (JavaScript) and DOM (ref: chapter 9 and 10)

• Graphics and Site Production (ref chapter 11)

You can access the lecture notes for WDP-I. Just email the instructors for the password.

The textbook site has much useful information and handson experiments that can be invaluable for making up any holes in your background.

CS Computer Account and UNIX

The CS department runs UNIX/Linux-based multiuser computer systems accessible on and off campus. Some of these run Web servers for users and for instructional use such as this class. The CS labs mostly provide PC (Windows) stations. You'll find well-equiped MACs for design work at the VCD Labs.

Again, if you had WDP-I you would already be familiar with using the computer systems made available to you. For newcomers you may find the computer systems info on the Notices page important. For those who need help with UNIX, you may find this UNIX Primer helpful.