As part of our NEH and NYState Council on the Arts-funded site
     interpretation program, I promised a Web site, which I would like
     to start developing/prototyping myself. I have a nice zippy
     486/33 machine (it *was* fast when I bought it!??) at home, and I
     use Netscape and a dial-up PPP for access.

     So what software are people using for developing Web sites? I
     would like to make this kind of a fun site, not necessarily long
     on graphics and bandwidth busting video, but with interesting
     layering and links. I'm particularly interested in incorporating
     hot maps (is that the right term for those clickable graphics?)

     The whole project is about landscape as windows into other ways
     of thinking about the natural world, in other cultures and other
     times, so I would like to use that metaphor for the web site
     itself.

     On the other hand, I've never dealt with HTML, and for that
     matter never "programmed" in anything more complex than R:Base
     database scripting language. Ideally, the HTML language would
     support all the latest extensions, though maybe I wouldn't really
     *need* flashing text, and it would be easy to go back and forth
     between scripting and display modes.

     I could pay money for it if I have to, but I'm curious about
     share and freeware like WebEdit and HotDog. Am I crazy to be
     thinking about doing this myself? I'm a diehard autodidact, but
     is this out of my league?

     Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

     Thanks, and a belated Happy New Year to all of you (us?) for whom
     it is a new year.

     Eric Siegel
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