Daily Guide for Tuesday, July 6, 1999; Day 06
Digital Library Homeroom,
Web Institute for Teachers 1999
Daily Schedule
Plennary Session
BSD LC 001
9-11 AM.
Homeroom Session
Regenstein Library Computer Training Room 153
11:15-1 PM
Topics & Contents
Basic Searching of the WWW
All about Saving and
Opening Files
Naming Files
Curriculum Design
Toward Good Design
A Quick, Cute Quiz
Please do the quiz at this URL:
http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/gamma/match2.htm
Basic Searching of the WWW
Please check this URL for the Workshop on Searching the WWW.
Here is the link to that locale: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/mentors/Boxer/searching_the_web/searching1.htm
(Plesae pay particular attention to the link to http://www.voicenet.com/~bertland/search.html
which is a good guide to many of the different kinds of Search Engines
out there.)
Using a scavenger hunt format, this workshop takes you through how to
find info. After you've worked through this content we'll talk about how
search engines work.
What Are Search Engines?
Search engines have several parts.
A - The Search Engine Itself
From the users perspective, what you see when you go to a Search Engine
web site is a place where you enter search criteria and then click Search.
What you're doing is using a Database Front End--the front being the part
you see. That's called a search engine.
There are different ways to make Search Engines, all have strengths
and weaknesses.
B - That Index Thing
But a Search Engine would be nothing without a database of information
to search! That is a (usually) really big file with lots of information.
That's the other half of a search engine. Although different Search Engines
are better and worse, it's the data (information) in the database that's
the real value.
C - How Do They Get Their Indexes?
So how do Web Search Engines get the information for their databases /
indexes? Here are some sources:
-
Direct solicitations
The people who run the search
engines may hear of sites they want index.
-
Submissions
People who have sites may
ask that they be added to their index
Some have set this up as
a business
-
"'Bots" and "Spiders"
Software set up by those
who run the search engines that goes out and automatically collectes information
about web sites. (This is the largest source of data for the search engines.)
("'Bot" is short for Robot.)
D - Whom Do They Index?
Quite aside from how they index, let's examine who they index.
Last I heard, the most comprehensive index of the WWW (www.altavista.com)
had indexed less than half of all he web sites on the Internet.
And I was pretty astonished they had gotten that large a percentage.
This means that if you're using a Search Engine to serach the web, be
sure to keep in mind this rule:
Your search is only as good as the qualities of
-
Your search criteria,
-
Their search engine and
-
The data that their search engine searches
Here are some implications of this rule:
-
There may be a site out there that has exactly the information you
want. But if it's not in their index you won't find it.
-
If your search criteria are one letter off, you won't find it.
-
Their search engine may not offer you exactly the features you want.
-
The indexing of the web site may not reflect all of the contents of the
site. So it may not be indexed in a way that would allow your search to
find it. (One mans "history of economics" is anothers commentary on "political
review".)
That Same Problem....
Note that the list of implications above reads a lot like the same problems
you face when walking into a Library and getting what you want. Again,
the problems are always the same; they just feel different. ;-)
All about
Saving and Opening Files
On Windows computers
Please check the URL: http://www.rabbitbrush.com/nettutor/saveas.html
which I got from the workshop on Mac
& PC File Maintenance (http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/mentors/Owens/File_Maintenance/FileMain_Frames.htm)
On Macintosh computers
If you're working with Macs, please check this URL for guidance: http://users.desupernet.net/ohora/savebox.html
Naming Files
You must be careful in how you name files. As you know, we work with Windows,
Macintosh and UNIX operating systems and the rules for naming files for
each is a little different. This table shows some of the limitations in
filenames:
|
Naming Restriction
|
Macintosh v1-8.n
|
Windows 95/98
|
UNIX
|
| # of Characters |
31 |
255 (sort of) |
any |
| Illegal Charcters |
: (colon) |
/ \ * (more) |
Spaces |
| CaSe SeNsItIvE |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Uses 3 Char. Extentions (.txt) at the end of files |
No |
Yes |
No |
Good Advice
In order to make your files work in the greatest number of circumstances,
follow these rules:
-
Use no spaces
You can use the underscore charcter "_" to create
the visual effect of a space
-
use only lowercase
It's a convention in URLs, anyway. Less typing.
;-)
-
Use file extentions for Windows compatibility.
Here are some examples of what you might want to name file and what
you should name a file:
|
What You'd Like
|
What You Should Use
|
| Version 2 of my guide to Curriculum |
my_curr_v2.htm |
| Minutes 2/16/99 |
minutes990216.doc |
A Note on Dates
Windows won't allow the use of the slash character "/". In addition, when
you sort a list of files (or other information) on a computer 2/1/98 will
sort before 10/16/99 (computers sort character by character). For these
reasons you may want to get into the habit of this pattern of dates in
filenames:
YYMMDD
or
990706
This will mean that files with 00 as the year will sort above those with
99 as the year but...they will sort correctly for the next 99 years!
Curriculum Design
Craig Cunningham has extensive guides (and is co-authoring a book on this)
to the full and correct design of curriculum (for the web and other media).
Outside of homeroom time please reivew his
guide (http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/curriculum/curric.htm)
and, as example, look at the guide
for WIT (http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/curriculum/guide.htm).
Please give us questions (via e-mail). We'll cover this topic "offline".
Toward Good Design
Rule #1:
What is says is more important
than how it looks. Have something to say that you target audience will
care about or don't do the job.
But how it looks is important.
Rule #2:
Just because you can do
something is not a reason you should do something.
Rule #2a:
Simpler is better (and easier).
Rule #3:
You don't control how it
looks.
Even if it looks good on your screen, other kinds or vintages
of computers my see your document differently (or not at all if you gussy
it up).
Different browsers and even different versions of different browsers
see documents differently.