HTML
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the foundational coding language used to create and control the functionality of web pages. Developed by Tim Berners-Lee in the late 1980s, HTML allows documents to be linked and accessed over the internet, facilitating the interconnected web we use today. The language consists of a series of elements known as tags, which define the structure and content of a webpage. For instance, tags such as <title> and <body> specify the title and main content area, while <h1> through <h6> indicate header sizes and <p> denotes paragraphs.
HTML documents typically have a .html file extension and must adhere to specific syntactical rules for proper interpretation by web browsers. Attributes within tags can modify appearance, such as font styles or image sizes, enhancing the visual presentation of web content. Over the years, HTML has evolved, leading to variations like XHTML, which offers greater flexibility for diverse applications beyond traditional web pages. Understanding HTML is essential for anyone looking to create websites or engage with web development, as it remains a critical component of internet technology.
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HTML
HTML, which stands for hypertext markup language, is a code used by computer programmers to control the functionality of Web pages. It was invented in the late twentieth century and has become an indispensable part of online technology.
History
Timothy Berners-Lee developed HTML over several years during the 1980s. Berners-Lee was a computer consultant at a nuclear physics lab in Switzerland. There he developed an early program that allowed someone reading one document to connect, or "link," to another document through a network. His invention was called hypertext. Later in the decade, he invented systems that enabled computers within the same network to communicate with each other. And, in 1989, he proposed developing a network that would allow computers all over the world to connect. Rather than communicating by email, files could be located on a page on the Web, where they could be accessed by anyone with the right technology and credentials---the code that would make this possible was HTML. Although the specific name for this language has changed significantly since its invention, its purpose has remained the same: to facilitate the smooth operation of web pages of all types.
Function
Although the "language" of HTML is not necessarily second-nature to all users, it is extremely systematic, with a few basic, important components. The file in which HTML code is written is called a document, which usually has an .html extension. The word "html" is in brackets that look like this --< >--at the beginning and end of a document. The words inside the brackets are called tags. Tags are a crucial component of an HTML document.
Tags are generally in pairs—the first tag, called the start tag, looks like this: <tag>, and the second tag, called the end tag, looks like this: </tag>. Keywords, the text between tags, depend on the content of a page. Keywords may be of many different types, with many different degrees of significance. Many tags will simply designate the exact words and phrases that will appear on a page. For example, the words <title>My Favorite Job Ever</title> would probably appear at the top of the screen on the web version of an html document. This code might appear in the first paragraph under the title: <p> I have had many jobs. But one stood out as a favorite.</p>
It is important to remember that HTML is a unique language. The text within tags is read and interpreted by a computer’s software, so the rules of the language must be followed. For example, the tag <!DOCTYPE html> must be used at the beginning of an HTML document to indicate the document type. When an HTML document is opened within a web browser, the language of the document guides the appearance and function of the page. The tags <title>text</title> indicate the title of a document, <body> and </body> indicate the start and end of the main text of a document, and <p>text</p> indicate the starting and ending points of a paragraph within a document. To place headers within a document, these tags must be used: <h1> and </h1>. To create headers of different sizes, these tags are used: <h2> and </h2>, <h3> and </h3>. Images to be inserted in a document are preceded and followed with the tags <img> and </img>.
The characteristics of an HTML document, such as the font, the color of the font, or the size of an image, are called attributes. They are usually placed between the brackets of a start tag and are followed by an equals (=) sign; the exact attribute itself is in quotes. For example, to display an image that is 600 pixels wide, this text would be used: width="600". Attributes such as color or font are referred to as styles and they must be designed in a specific way. A font is indicated with the phrase "font-family." For example, to create a title in Times font, these tags would be used: <title font-family="Times">The Best Job I Ever Had</title>. Every element of a Web page and every characteristic of every element has its own designation in HTML. HTML has codes for tables, animations, different tabs within a page, and the size and shape of a page. Once an HTML document is complete, it is opened in a browser, which is when the person writing the HTML code can see whether or not the code has been properly written.
As time has passed, HTML has been modified and used in different ways, such as in mobile devices. A notable development is XHTML. The "X" stands for "Extensible," indicating that the language can be used in a wider variety of situations than web development. As programmers continue to write code and as the Internet continues to become more pervasive in daily life, the true significance of Berner-Lee’s invention becomes more and more evident.
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