HTML Test Answers
HTML Exam for INDE 498 A Name: _Solution Set__
MY BEST ANSWERS ARE IN BLUE
Note that I am more than happy to give you credit for a different answer if you explain your
reasoning in writing on the exam. Only 3 students received credit for different answers by
taking advantage of explicit communication. I am guessing there are over 20 cases of different
answers where you had a pretty good reason for answering as you did but forgot an exam grader
is not a mind reader. There is no way for me to know which 20+ answers deserve partial credit.
Please answer all 10 questions to your best ability (following the instructions in parentheses).
1. In which element would you write the following HTML Web page features:
(circle either BODY or HEAD for all five features)
A script to surf the Web for a current stock price BODY HEAD
A title for the browser title bar to display BODY HEAD
A section heading for an on-line instruction manual BODY HEAD
A client-side image map BODY HEAD
A link to a form processing process BODY HEAD
Comments:
1. If you are going to write a script to surf the Web for a stock price, you should
write it in the HEAD so it can start running early in the page delivery. You
can often write it in the body but it is better in the head because it requires
pre-processing (especially if you are going to show the stock price in the body
later on in the page). 53% of you thought it should go in the body but no one
wrote any notes as to why they thought so. A few of you wrote it could go in
both places which is fine (but still better in the head for processing efficiency).
Bottom line: Any pre-processing should go in the head element whenever possible.
2. Everyone got the TITLE element placement correct.
3. The section heading is text embedded within the body text. It belongs in the
body. 87% of you agreed with that statement.
4. A client-side image map is implemented with three different elements: IMG for
the visuals, MAP for the mapping, and AREA for the specification of the regions on
the map. This is best kept together in the body of the page. If you use common sense
though, you might think the MAP could be considered pre-processing in the head element.
I like your thinking but it isn't typical to break things up and hyperlinks, which
the AREA tags include as HREF attributes, should be kept in the body. Only three of
you chose the wrong answer and yet those three scored the highest on the exam. 90%
chose the intended BODY answer.
5. 93% of you agreed that the ACTION attribute handles activating the form processing
routine. The ACTION attribute belongs within the opening FORM tag which is always in
the body of the Web page (since it appears visually there).
2. You are authoring an HTML Web page on a computer in Brazil. The keyboard is mapped
using a Linux-provided Portuguese keyboard driver. You want to have a Lambda (Greek capital
letter) appear in the body of your page. Will the following approaches get the job done
for all general public audiences that use a Brazilian version of Internet 6?
(circle either YES or NO for all five approaches)
You remap your keyboard using a Linux-provided Greek
driver and press the key associated with the Lambda character. YES NO
You type the proper character entity for Lambda in the flow
of your text. YES NO
You create a GIF image of the Lambda symbol and insert an
IMG tag that inserts the GIF where you need the Lamda. YES NO
You place the Lambda inside a FONT element that has an
attribute FACE=Greek that includes a Lamda in the font set. YES NO
You create a Lambda in a specialized text editor that creates
Lambda symbols in UTF8 and you copy and paste the Lambda into
your HTML document. YES NO
Comments:
1. Remapping your keyboard with a Linux driver that creates a Lambda works great as
long as your text editor maintains the UTF8 encoding from interaction with the keyboard
mapping software (driver). Once you have the UTF8 encoded Lambda in place, the browser
shows the Lambda fine to all audiences. So, although only 30% of you agree with me, I
think YES is the better answer. But, if you chose NO, you were in the majority and probably
none of you would remap your keyboard to type a single Lambda anyway. If I write this
question again, I might try to be clearer as to the text editor being UTF8 compliant.
I was hoping some of you would have written that clarification yourselves as I could
then have given you credit if you were thinking about that.
2. This is the fastest approach to provide a reliable Lambda character. 93% of you agreed
it would work fine.
3. Using an IMG tag is very reliable and will work for all audiences. It is a wasteful
approach to take but 90% of you agreed it would work.
4. Fonts only provide reliable characters if the audience has the font on their
computer system already. Fonts are not delivered with HTML pages. This is not
a reliable approach. 80% of you agreed with me.
5. If you know you have a valid UTF8 Lambda character on your clipboard (from the copy
command), and you see the Lambda as you paste it into your text editor, your audience
will see the Lambda character fine also when you publish your page. 70% of you agreed
with this assessment.
3. You surf the Web and find an HTML page you like visually. You view the source of the page
and see text that appears as . What do you know as a result?
(circle one BEST answer for each of the two multiple choice questions)
a. The author added color to a single cell of a table.
b. The author added colored to one row of a table.
c. The author added color to a whole table.
d. The author is likely at risk of the browser mistaking his intent.
a. The Web page likely shows some red on the page.
b. The Web page likely shows some green on the page.
c. The Web page likely shows some blue on the page.
d. The Web page likely shows some yellow on the page.
Comments:
I expected everyone to get these correct. 90% of you knew that TR was the table
row element (v. TD for answer a or TABLE for answer c) and 73% of you knew
the #0FBF0F was predominantly green (remember: #RRGGBB which means the color
is 15/255 red, 176/255 green, and 14/255 blue). You can never have a yellow
hue with equal parts red and blue.
4. Which of the following are recommended HTML approaches you use to provide spacing in
a Web page?
(circle ALL that are recommended)
a. using a BR tag to apply a line break
b. using a P tag to apply a paragraph break
c. using a CB tag to apply a column break
d. using a HR tag to apply a visual section break
e. using the correct character entities for tabs and additional spaces
Comments:
93% of you knew there is no such CB tag in the HTML specifications. Column breaks
should be made via the appropriate use of TD tags. Exactly half of you knew
there were character entities available for some document spacing (such as
tabs and spaces). Perhaps you weren't sure that they were blessed by the
W3C? All character entities that comply to the UTF8 standard are recommended
by the W3C as the W3C recommends all use of UTF8 text.
5. When is it usually appropriate to use a relative URL instead of an absolute URL?
(circle ALL answers that are appropriate)
a. when you reference an image SRC on the same server as your Web page
b. when you reference a link to your style sheet on the same server as your Web page
c. when you reference an image SRC on a server different than your Web page
d. when you reference another bookmark in your Web page
Everyone but 1 of you selected a and b as correct. Only 53% of you knew that a
bookmark in the same page is referenced by a relative URL (for example, by using
HREF=#sectionX where sectionX is a named bookmark in your page).
Can you use a relative URL for all the above under ANY circumstances? YES NO
Only 40% of you agreed with the YES answer here. You will all now agree that
a, b, and d regularly use relative URLs. Because a domain controller server
provides a uniform URL presentation to the rest of the world, and because
the domain controller server can organize content from multiple servers
within the domain, you can access image SRC URLs relatively, even though the image
is on a different server. The domain controller just provides the addressable
illusion that the content is all on one server.
6. Using just the HTML 3.2 specification (and nothing specified after that time), which is the
best approach to controlling page layout to make it appear the same to all audiences?
(circle the one BEST answer)
a. use table tags and attributes along with images to stabilize the presentation
b. type your HTML code using fixed-width fonts
c. create your Web page, present it in a Web browser, and create an IMG element from a screen shot of the page.
d. implement a FRAMESET with appropriate tags and attributes
67% of you knew answer a is the best approach. 20% of you thought it would be
better to create an image of your content and put just the image on the page. That
approach would work but it is wasteful of the network and therefore is inferior. 13%
of you answered d. FRAMESETs are a great way to control Web site navigation, but
they just defer the page layout to the HTML documents that fill the frames. You
then still have unreliable layout in those frames.
7. Which of the following 4 technologies was not built specifically to coexist well with HTML?
(circle the one BEST answer that was not)
a. CSS b. DHTML c. SGML d. XML
I asked this exact same question on last year's HTML test. No one got it wrong
last year so I hoped to give you free points. 27% of you thought CSS was not
built specifically to work with HTML. CSS ties into HTML nicely as you will
see shortly in class. 10% of you chose XML. Next week you will see that XML
works well with HTML via the XLST translation process. In class, we discussed
where the HTML syntax got its start. SGML, a 1970s language, suggested the
syntax (using < and > in tags for example). Since it was developed before
HTML, it had no consideration of HTML within its specification. 67% of you
agreed with that.
8. Put the development of the following technologies in historical order:
(Type 1 for first oldest, 2 for second, 3 for third, 4 for fourth, and 5 for fifth)
4 Internet Explorer Web Browser
1 or 2 HTML 1.0
5 CSS 2
3 Netscape Web Browser
1 or 2 Mosaic Web Browser
60% of you ordered the answers correctly. This question came directly from lecture.
Extra: Which two were developed closest together in time? HTML 1.0 and Mosaic
9. Which of the following are valid HTML 3.2 elements for creating lists in Web pages?
(circle ALL that are valid)
a. Definition Lists (DL elements)
b. Ordered Lists (OL elements)
c. Tabbed Lists (TL elements)
d. Unordered Lists (UL elements)
e. Weighted Lists (WL elements)
Comments:
There are no such TL or WL elements in the HTML specification. 30% of you didn't
skim the section in the readings on DL lists. Only 17% of you suggested the TL
answer and 7% of you suggested the WL answer.
10. Which of the following are true statements regarding HTML Hyperlinks (aka Links)?
(circle ALL that are true statements)
a. Hyperlinks let you create a link to any Web page your browser can access by a URL.
b. Hyperlinks are best implemented via a LINK element.
c. Hyperlinks must link to the top or a bookmark within HTML Web pages only.
d. Anchors have 2 popular uses: Referencing other resources and naming bookmarks.
e. Audiences access hyperlink HREF URLs by clicking on text or images in your Web page.
Comments:
97% of you knew a and e were correct answers. 73% of you knew d was correct as well. Of course
Hyperlinks can link to any resource, not just HTML pages. You've seen examples by clicking
on a sound byte or software download from within a page. Perhaps I feel a bit like an NBA
referee on this one as I don't like my wording of answer c so well. I am thankful only
two of you selected it as true. The LINK element is used to link your Web page to another
page on the Web that needs to be interpreted along with your page in order to present your
content faithfully. The LINK element belongs in the HEAD section. We will be formally
introduced to the LINK element when we consider CSS integration.