Website Development Spring 1997, Sarah Lawrence College
Instructor Andy C. Deck
Text Jamsa Press, Java Programmer's Library, SLC bookstore
Optional O'Reilly, Linux in a Nutshell

In class: Learn what's going on in web site development, learn how to solve problems pertaining to web site development, learn how to advance from goals and ideas to results that are not drastically curtailed by the limitations of your comprehension, learn how to formulate realistic goals.

Conference: Make unique and compelling web sites that extend and represent your skills and predilections. Seek out applications for the web that are valuable to you.

Challenge: Undoubtedly the skills you learn can help you find employment, but can you locate uses for web techniques that are fulfilling in other ways? If so, the popular hysteria may serve you "spiritually" (intellectually, artistically, politically,...) and materially.

Evaluation: You will be judged both by what you produce (web site), and according to the degree that you master the concepts presented in class. The latter will be judged mostly by the assignments you hand in. One exam, immediately prior to spring break. Prior experience will be considered.

Creed: Competition, contrary to market ideology, is not always productive: work together and help each other. Communicate with e-mail, and help me maintain links and supplementary documentation that will benefit the class.

Week of Jan. 20
Mon. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Wed. Introduction, threats, overview
Assignments:
1) have an e-mail account (see Comp. Lab staff)
2) send your (preferred) e-mail address info to andyman@mail.slc.edu
3) use telnet (telnet help)
to investigate your user account on mail.slc.edu
4) prepare oral report on your given (assigned in class) Unix command and write 1
page summary of that command
5) familiarize yourself with a search engine such as www.altavista.digital.com (read the Help documentation provided at the site to learn about syntax)

Week of Jan. 27
Mon. Unix and HTTPD
Assignment: Log into newmedia.slc.edu and practice using all the commands reviewed
Wed. HTML and Browsers
Assignments:
1) surf the web, of course, and use the "View source" menu item
2) Learn html basics and put up a web page in the /home/yourusername/web folder using Fetch (FTP help)

Week of Feb. 3
Mon. Intro to CGI (common gateway interface) and client-server methodology
Assignment: read the scripts handed out, execute them on the server, see what they
do, write 1/2 page description of each
Wed. Variables in scripts
Assignment: Make a CGI script that generates the current date and time as A) text
and B) HTML
Advanced: Make a CGI script that generates an HTML page with GIF images indicating
the status of the sun/moon at that given hour

Week of Feb. 10
Mon. CGI and file creation/modification, forms
Assignment: write a CGI script that adds form data to a file on the server
Wed. Advanced uses for CGI
Assignment: write a form/cgi combo that implements something that is meaningful to you (ie a "real world" application"); should probably employ a database file in /home/you/db.
Week of Feb. 17
Mon. Advanced form / CGI demo
Assignment: use GIF Builder to make an animation
Wed. 2-D graphics applications, Photoshop, compression, formats
Assignment: compare GIF and JPEG for various image types

Week of Feb. 24
Mon. Intro to Java
Assignment: read white paper
Wed. Java syntax, variables
Assignment: write a program that uses the String class

Week of Mar. 3
Mon. Loops and conditions
Assignment: forms parsing with java program
Wed. Random numbers, arrays
Assignment: make your own random lyric generator

Week of Mar. 10
Mon. Review
Wed. Mid-term exam

Week of Mar. 17
Week of Mar. 24
Spring Break - be good

Week of Mar. 31

Mon. AWT (Abstract windowing toolkit), user input
Wed. Simple Graphics

Week of Apr. 7
Mon. Threads and other fundamentals
Wed. Frames, Simple Javascript
Week of Apr. 14
Mon. Java/Javascript, syntax

  • Create a mouse over event, catching the browser to be sure it's Netscape 3 or Netscape 4. (See handout) Wed. Sound
  • Read, compile, learn CHAP13
  • Create a sound that plays through an applet, either from a CD or using the microphone
    Week of Apr. 21
    Mon.Images through Java
  • Combine an image you've made with sound in the manner of CHAP13, or in some other creative way

    Week of May 12
    Last week of class