[WEB4LIB] De-activating code in text

[Thomas Dowling]

----- Original Message -----
From: "J.M. Latham" <latham1 at students.uiuc.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 5:42 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] De-activating code in text


> Sorry if this has come up before but ...
>
> I need to be able to deactivate the code within text.
>
> Example:  I am trying to write a guide in HTML re: how to use basic CSS.
>
> When I type out the code to "comment out" text from a stylesheet in older
> browswers, all my own work disappears.
>
> I know there must be an HTML code that says "don't act on the following
> code -- just here for amusement" but I can't find it ... well, not
> quickly, at least.
>

It's a little tricky to tell from this description (HTML doesn't "activate"
or "deactivate" code, it renders markup), but I think you need to brush up
on character entities.  The characters '<' and '>', having special meanings
in HTML markup, cannot be represented directly in an HTML document*, so you
can't type '<--' and expect a browser to display it.  You need the character
entity for '<' which is '&lt;'.

There's a good introduction at
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu