Re: (urgent) need to create .html file -- newest best-way (& easy)

[Marco Parrone <marc0@autistici.org>]

David Combs on 24 Sep 2004 16:14:52 -0400 writes:

> Am using 21.2.1 (yes, I could upgrade, if you suggest what to)
> and have sudden need to create an .html-file.
>
> The 21.2.1 comes with an html-mode, seems ok -- but, just
> wondering, is there anything "better" out there?
>
> ie newer, more bells & lwhistles, or maybe (unlikely!) requiring
> less html-tagging (ie by you typing in, in a prescribed
> format, and it figuring out what's a list, a paragraph,
> etc), 

There is BHL <http://www.nongnu.org/bhl>.

> Like, given that you *know* the various alternatives,
> which one do *you* prefer, and why?  (And, where you
> get it from, too.)

I prefer HTML for writing HTML pages, because I have as much control
as possible on the generated HTML output (as I'm writing it).

Some suggestions:

  - when you have written the first page, you can use it as template

  - keep your page open in some window/frame of your browser,
    reloading it when needed

  - keep the references <http://www.w3.org> open in some other
    windows/frames of your browser

  - make good use of whitespace (for example, use empty lines to
    separate things like <li> elements in lists, and put long links in
    separate lines).

  - emacs keyboard macros are very useful: I use them to do repetitive
    commands, on multiple files too, for example when I want to do an
    operation on all the html files in the current directory, I do

    C-x d RET
    F2
    C-s html RET
    RET
    M-<
    <KEYSTROKES>
    C-x C-s
    C-x d RET
    F3
    F4

    then I hit F4 some times.

    I have:

     (global-set-key [f2] 'start-kbd-macro)
     (global-set-key [f3] 'end-kbd-macro)
     (global-set-key [f4] 'call-last-kbd-macro)

    in my `.emacs'.

    This is even more useful when your HTML files have a coherent
    structure (for example, you can assume many more things in your
    keyboard macros).

However, naturally all this is IMHO.

-- 
Marco Parrone <marc0@autistici.org> [0x45070AD6]