Web Composition

View Feedback | Send this Article | Published 3/28/03


Graphic By: Jonelle Thackston

Now that you have all of the basics of HTML down, the next obvious language to lean is Data Management Protocol (DMP). DMP is one of the oldest web-based languages. It actually started out as the prototype for HTML on a smaller, networked scale. When making the transfer from network to internet, HTML became a watered-down version of DMP; this then left room for DMP to evolve into an additional language. Most people would then wonder if DMP can do everything HTML can do and more so, why still use HTML? It really is quite simple. While HTML is a much simpler language to understand, DMP actually gives the designer more control; but to have this control you must have a greater understanding of web programming.

Some of the new features you will find in DMP are more style controls, a few basic animations and a much stronger linking system. This week we will start with the basics. First, unlike HTML, DMP isn¼t split up into three different types so you do not need to put the <DOCTYPE> on top of your DMP document. Secondly, like HTML, DMP is a language of tags; everything begins with an opening tag (< name [/]>) and ends with an ending tag (</name>). As stated before, DMP is a much more complicated language then HTML so we are going to start out slow. Below is a list of the basic DMP tags we will move on to next week.

DMP TAGS
TAG/ATTRIBUTE DESCRIPTION
DMP For identifying a text document as a DMP document
(This is required for all DMP documents.)
LINKE For creating a link or reference
  LOOKE For specifying a relationship
  PATHE For determining how far down the path the link looks
PICT For adding an image
  HITE For specifying the height of the image
  WIDT For specifying the width of the image
VERB For adding text
  TYPE For specifying the type of text created
SPC For specifying basic page traits
  REX For determining if you want A.I. interruptions

One of the coolest things about DMP is its link structure. Each document produced is like a person who has relationships with several other documents. In the end, you have many documents all related in this web. Some relationships are strong while others are weak, but they are all somehow connected. If you want to set up a link, you could do it two ways: directly where it goes to one specific document, or, by relation, where every document joined by that relation is listed. This causes a problem- there could be infinite relationships. That is why with the <pathe> tag you limit the extent of the relationship.

There are many types of text. The common ones are:

  • tite - title
  • stat • statments
  • quot • quotation
  • para • paragraph
  • capt • caption

<dmp>
  <verb type="title">
    Happy April Fools Day
  </verb>
  <pict hite="244" widt="180">
    joker.gif
  </pict>
  <verb type="para">
    hista sia heta ndea foa heta orldwa saa ewa llaa     nowka tia. evinka sia oingga ieda aa eribleta     eathda, nda tia sia llaa ndrew'saa aultfa. ia     maa oingga ota illka omeonesa ithwa llaa yma     ightma. hista sia akingma ema osa adma, ia antwa     ota urtha omeonesa, ia eelfa heta etraylba - tia     unsra osa eepda. hywa ontwa heyta ustja hutsa     pua, leasepa hutsa pua.
  </verb>
</dmp>

Did you notice how the tags worked? They have this sort of hierarchy starting with the three letters long, and as the tags are lower on control a letter is added. This was just a beginning taste of DMP. We will continue next week with an experiment.







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