A Pattern from the HTML Pattern Language at Anamorph
Exposable Guts
This is one of those patterns that I can't justify yet; it just seems right to me.
As people return again and again to a Web site, they might want to learn more about how the site is built. What software are you using? What's your hardware platform? Where is the site physically located? What's going to happen at this site in the future? How were the programs that run the site written?
Exposable Guts means that the elements that make the site run, but that are usually invisible to the reader, should be accessible if someone wants to see them. They shouldn't be so visible that they are stumbled into unexpectedly, but neither should they be made particularly difficult to find.
Related Patterns
Worksheet Documents can specify the direction another document will take in the future. Information about the author can be provided via Author Biographies, and Downloadable CGI's can satisfy programmers who may access the site. Some other pattern, not yet expressed in this language, can provide specifications of site mechanics.
I'm not sure what larger patterns this pattern is part of.
Discussion
References
A Pattern from the HTML Pattern Language at Anamorph
Last Updated: May 17, 1995. Created May 17, 1995
Copyright 1995 Robert Orenstein. Your Comments are welcome: atempaddress@netscape.net