Below are links to the software that you will need for this course. Follow the link with your operating system's name for the no-fuss (less-fuss?) download.

Web Browser

For this course, you need a web browser that has good support for XHTML and CSS and other web standards. Firefox is probably the best choice here, and Chrome is also excellent. Mac users can also work with Safari, which comes with OSX.

Firefox is available in the CSIL lab for on-campus students: Start → Programs → Mozilla Firefox → Mozilla Firefox.

[+] Installation Instructions

Text Editor

You will need a text editor to work with XHTML and CSS files. Note that you cannot use a graphical HTML/XHTML editor for this course: you need a text editor. Any text editor you like will do, but one that at least does syntax hilighting will make your like easier.

When you load a file into any of these, they will do syntax highlighting. That means that it automatically reads your document to figure out what is a tag, an attribute, and so forth. Each of these is in a different colour so you can tell them apart at a glance.

Crimson Editor is available in CSIL for on-campus students: Start → Programs → Crimson Editor → Crimson Editor.

[+] Installation Instructions

Graphics Software

You will need a bitmap graphics program so you can work with images for your web pages. If you already have a program like Photoshop or Painter, you can use that, but you certainly shouldn't feel the need to buy it for this course. The GIMP is an excellent image editor and it's free. Also see instructions for using The GIMP.

If you're interested in experimenting with a vector-based image editing program, Inkscape is free and reasonably easy to start with.

The GIMP is available in CSIL for on-campus students: Start → Programs → GIMP → GIMP 2.

[+] Installation Instructions

Python

We will be programming in the Python programming language in this course. You can download Python for free for almost any operating system.

Also see instructions for using Python.

Python is available in the CSIL lab for on-campus students: Start → Programs → Python → Python 2.5 → IDLE (Python GUI).

[+] Installation Instructions

Secure File Transfer

You will need to use a secure file transfer (SCP) program to transfer files to the course web server.

For more information on using transferring files to the web server, see the instructions on uploading files.

The SSH Client for Windows Secure File Transfer program is available in the CSIL lab for on-campus students: Start → Programs → SSH Secure Shell → Secure File Transfer Client.

[+] Installation Instructions