Datasheet

Part I: Programming with JavaScript

At some point you’ll want your Web pages to be available on the Internet.

Although you can install a server on your home computer, it’s usually better

to use an online hosting service. You can often get very good online hosting

very cheaply or even free. If you want to have a specific name attached to

your Web site (such as www.mySite.com), then you’ll need to pay about

$10 a year to register the domain. Hosting services frequently use Linux, but

you’ll probably use an online interface that hides all the details from you.

The right tools make any job easier, but for Web development, many of the

really great software tools are available entirely free of charge. Because these

tools are open source (available with a license that encourages distribution),

they are entirely legal to use without paying for them, unlike commercial pro-

grams obtained using illicit methods.

You can do basic Web development on any computer with a text editor and

browser. As your Web-tweaking skills get more sophisticated, you might want

more powerful tools. Read on to see some great tools that cost absolutely

nothing.

Picking an Editor

Web pages, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS are all ultimately forms of text. You

don’t really need any particular program to write them. Still, having exactly

the right tool can make your life a lot easier. Since you’re going to spend a lot

of time with your Web tools, you should be aware of your options.

Avoiding the problem tools

Using the wrong tool for the job can really make your life difficult. Here are a

few tools that don’t really stand up to the job of Web development:

✓ Microsoft Word: Word processors are great (I’m using one to write this

book), but they aren’t really designed for creating Web pages. Word

(and all other word processors) store lots of information in their files

besides plain text. All the formatting stuff is great for non-Web docu-

ments, but HTML and CSS have their own ways of managing this data,

and the other stuff gets in the way. Even the Save as HTML command

is problematic. Although it stores the page in a form of HTML, Word’s

formatting is extremely clunky and difficult to work with. The resulting

pages will not be suitable for adapting to JavaScript.

✓ Notepad: This is the classic tool built into most versions of Windows. It

saves pages in plain text, so it’s better than Word for Web development,

but Notepad is too simplistic for any sort of serious work. It lacks such

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