Introduction to HTML

HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language, and it's used to add various attributes to text on the World Wide Web. HTML lets you change the layout, insert graphics, change the appearance of text, create interactive documents and a lot more.

HTML is not a programming language like C++, it's a markup language. Everything is based around the concept of "tags". A tag is a code which will not be displayed, instead it will change the appearance of the text. One example of a tag is <B>. Most HTML functions (tags) have an opening and closing tag, it's because we want the tag to only the apply to some text, not the whole document. For example, the <B> tag is the tag for "bold", and </B> is it's closing tag. A closing tag is the same as the opening tag, but with a slash. So to make a text bold, we put the text we want bold between the tags like this: <B>hi everyone</B>. This would be displayed as hi everyone.

The HTML language has a number of different "flavors", or specifications. Today almost every browser supports the HTML 2 specification, and most of them the new HTML 3.2 specification as well. However, browser makers like Netscape and Microsoft have implemented some specifications of their own. These special tags will only work with the browser they were made for (of course, other browsers may also implement the same tags, and then they will work with those browsers, too). So remember, if you are using browser specific implements, everyone will not be able to read your pages.

It doesn't matter what computer or browser you use, HTML can be understood. It's only a simple text file and all you need is an HTML browser to interpret it. There are browsers for all major systems like Windows, Amiga, Mac, UNIX, Atari, etc. If you know if there is one for the C64, please tell me, I'm just curious since they're able to do Doom games on that wonderful 1 MHz computer.

The original purpose of HTML was only to store and view information. How it looked wasn't that important. But new features are added to HTML which allow people to create fancy effects with graphics, for example, not to mention Javascript and Java.

Just remember, a homepage is created to be viewed, so make your page display well on all browsers.

Last updated 970617