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Web
Design Articles
What is
HTML?
Hypertext
Markup
Language,
or HTML,
is the
normal
language
used to
design
pages
meant
for use
on the
World
Wide
Web. By
using
special
commands,
known as
tags,
web page
designers
can
format a
text
document
for
presentation,
using
different
font
types,
colors
and
sizes.
HTML
also
allows a
web page
designer
to
create
the
hyperlinks
that
allow
users to
jump
from
page to
page,
and to
embed
images
or other
files
within a
web page
if
desired.
The
first
version
of what
was to
become
HTML was
ENQUIRE,
a
hypertext
system
created
in 1980
by Tim
Berners-Lee,
a
researcher
at the
CERN
nuclear
laboratory.
Originally
intended
as a
means
for CERN
researchers
to share
documents
more
easily,
in 1989
Berners-Lee
and CERN
colleague
Robert
Cailliau
proposed
a
similar
system
for use
on the
Internet.
This
became
public
in 1991,
and was
followed
in 1993
by the
publication
of the
first
HTML
specification.
This was
followed
in 1995
by the
publication
of HTML
2, and
in 1997
by HTML
3.2
(HTML 3
was
originally
proposed
in 1995
but
later
dropped).
The
current
version
is HTML
4, from
1999,
though
HTML 5
was
recently
published
in draft
form.
Although
the
introduction
of HTML
helped
fuel the
explosive
growth
of the
World
Wide
Web,
there
were
many
complaints
that the
code
became
increasingly
cumbersome
and
complex,
especially
as
browser
support
in the
early
years
was
uneven.
HTML 4
started
to
establish
some
standards,
and to
remove
some
elements
that
were
considered
to be
unwieldy.
The
launch
of
Extensible
Hypertext
Markup
Language
(XHTML)
in 2000
was
intended
as the
next
step in
cleaning
up HTML.
XHTML
derives
from a
cross
between
HTML and
Extensible
Markup
Language,
or XML.
XHTML
requires
a more
rigid
syntax
than
HTML,
theoretically
making
the code
easier
to
produce
and
check.
However,
although
there
were
many
similarities
between
HTML and
XHTML,
browser
support
is still
patchy
even
today,
and it
seems
likely
that
HTML
will
continue
to be
the
dominant
language
used for
web
pages.
In use,
HTML
consists
of
elements,
data
types
and
character
references.
Elements
can be
thought
of as
the
commands
of HTML,
for
instance
the
element
<p> at
the
start of
a block
of text
tells
the
browser
that the
following
text
should
be
formatted
as a new
paragraph.
Some
elements
have
attributes
associated
with
them,
for
example
the
<body>
element
may have
the
attribute
text=”#FFFFFF”,
which
would
tell the
browser
to
display
the text
contained
in that
section
in white
(FFFFFF
is the
hexadecimal
equivalent
of 255,
255,
255, the
RGB code
for the
color
white).
Data
types
can mean
many
different
things,
depending
on
whether
the data
type is
for use
by
elements,
for
example
style
sheet or
script
data, or
for
attribute
use, for
example
colors,
languages
or
sizes.
Finally,
character
references
allow
for the
use of
symbols
within
web
pages.
An
example
of this
is the
ampersand,
or &
symbol.
This
symbol
is used
as part
of the
language
of HTML,
so in
order to
use an
ampersand
as part
of the
text
within a
web page
then the
designer
needs to
use
“&”
in order
for the
symbol
to
display
properly.
There
are over
250
character
references
available
for use;
in
addition
over one
million
numeric
character
references
allow
web
designers
to
access
letters
and
symbols
from
languages
world-wide.
In order
to
produce
an HTML
file,
all that
is
really
needed
is a
basic
text
editor –
an HTML
file is
just a
text
file.
Windows
Notepad
is ideal
for
this, as
is
SimpleText
for
those
with
Macintosh
computers.
However,
writing
HTML
files
using a
text
editor
can be
slow,
and
requires
a solid
knowledge
of HTML
commands.
Most web
page
designers
now use
one of
the many
HTML
editors
available
now,
such as
Dreamweaver.
These
editors
use a
WYSIWYG
approach,
and will
allow a
designer
to
create
HTML
files
using a
“drag
and
drop”
style,
allowing
the
designer
to
preview
changes
in the
appearance
of the
web page
as HTML
code is
added or
modified. |
