*References are provided at the bottom of this article.
Introduction
Hypertext Markup Language or HTML is used to create websites. It is a great way to learn how to read and write code due to its simple structure. Decades have accumulated a large number of publications about HTML that are scattered about the web. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website also has a vast library on HTML and related topics. Combined, all the resources available to budding software programmers make understanding the language more like learning to write the alphabet than read classical orchestral sheet music.
History
The language was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee to make sharing information between colleagues easier, over international distances. Berners-Lee's initial attempt at this level of computer networking was his 1980 prototype, ENQUIRE. In 1991 Robert Cailliau and Berners-Lee initialized the first "web site and web server", at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html using HTML.
Overview
HTML files are located with the use of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which points to the location of that file through a series of forward slashes http://www.somepage.com/homepage. These documents are stored on servers, like your computer, often times for businesses or other organizations that maintain a website or webpage. The distinction between website and webpage is that a page has a single browsable page whereas a website has multiple pages that can be accessed online.
Web browsers are used to translate HTML into a readable format for users despite their computer's operating systems (OS). Since not all computers use the same OS they can't all run the same programs unless they use special tools to do so, HTML is an example of a mechanism that allows this. A web browser takes all of the text within an HTML document and interprets it based on the rules created by the W3C. In other words, only the latest HTML code will work correctly as it is laid out by the W3C and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). As of writing this article, HTML5 is the current version.
Computers that are on separate networks and even internationally separated networks are able to communicate by means of the uniformity of HTML, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). HTTP is how information is accessed, and URI's are essentially the same as URL's, they describe a location in.
HTML is made up of short syntax that utilizes elements which have specific functions and are denoted by tags which typically have a start and end tag, <> and </> respectively. You can inspect the HTML code in your browser.
Each browser and computer OS is different so you will need to research your specific appliances. On a Mac, using Safari you can "right click" the mouse and select "Inspect Element".
Implementation & Example
HTML Examples from W3CSchools.com:
You can make HTML documents with a plain text editor and view the output in a browser by opening yourtext.html. In order for the document to open in the browser window you will need to save the document as a .html extension.
<!--comment -->
<style>
body {background-color: grey}
</style>
<center>
<header>
<header> <h1>
<h1>
this is the header
</h1>
</h1> </header>
</header>
</center>
<p>
<p> this is a paragraph, the <> indicate a tag, the </> indicates the end of the preceding tag that corresponds to it </p>
</p>
The < represents the lesser than sign, <, likewise the > represents the greater than sign.
Plain text editor
The saved HTML file
HTML opened from desktop
Additional Information:
BBC. (2014). History
Internet Engineering Task Force. (2018). About the IETF
W3C. (2018). About W3C
W3Schools. (2018). HTML Examples
Danielle Thé describing various components of the web, HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Youtube. (2016). HTML, CSS, JavaScript Explained // fast 4 minute summary (with LEGO)
by
Danielle Thé
Key Terms
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
ENQUIRE - prototype to HTML
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force
URI - Uniform Resource Identifier
URL - Uniform Resource Locator
Plain Text/Plain Text Editor
OS - Operating System
HTML element & tag
Syntax - Arrangement of words
Resources:
Adam Wood (2018). HTML Comments: How To Use Them In Your Code (AKA <!– –> )
BBC. (2014). History
BBC. (2011). Question: What does "URL" stand for?
Biography Online. (2018). Tim Berners-Lee Biography
Computer Hope. (2017). What is CHTML?
HTML5Rocks. (2011). How Browsers Work: Behind the scenes of modern web browsers
HTML. (2018). Living Standard: 12.2 Parsing HTML documents
Indiana University. (2018). What is a URL?
Infomesh. (2018). The Early History of HTML
Internet Engineering Task Force. (1994). Uniform Resource Locators
Internet Society. (2018). About the IETF
Language Technology Group. (2010). What's a URI and why does it matter?
Living Internet. (2017). The Internet
Mike Foskett. (2017). Displaying code in a web page
Mozilla Developer Network. (2018). HTML5
Quora. (2016). What is the difference between a URL and HTTP?
Quora. (2016). Why do web browsers use text HTML and not compiled byte code similar to Java?
Ross Shannon. (2012). What is HTML?
Stack Overflow. (2017). Which characters need to be escaped on HTML?
Stack Overflow. (2009). Why HTML/JavaScript/CSS are not compiled languages and will they ever be?
Stack Overflow. (2008). What is the difference between a URI, a URL and a URN?
W3C. (2018). 1989 Proposal
W3C. (2018). About W3C
W3C. (2018). Enquire Manual - HyperText
W3C. (2005). HTTP Extension Framework
W3C. (1990). HyperText Implementation
W3C. (1996). Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
W3C. (1990). Links and Anchors
W3C. (2003). Publication Rules
W3C. (2018). Pubrules Documentation
W3C. (2018). The history of the web
W3C. (2018). A history of HTML
W3Schools (2018). HTML Element Reference
W3Schools. (2018). HTML Examples
W3Schools. (2018). HTML Introduction
W3Schools. (2018). JavaScript HTML DOM
Wikipedia. (2018). ENQUIRE
Wikipedia. (2018). HTML
Wikipedia. (2018). HTML Element
Wikipedia. (2018). Plain text
Wikipedia. (2018). Robert Cailliau
Wikipedia. (2018). Standard Generalized Markup Langauge
Wikipedia. (2018). TYPSET and RUNOFF
Wikipedia. (2018). World Wide Web Consortium
Wikipedia. (2018). Uniform Resource Identifier
World Wide Web Foundation. (2018). History of the Web
Youtube. (2016). HTML, CSS, JavaScript Explained // fast 4 minute summary (with LEGO)
Youtube. (2011). HTML Tutorial: What Is HTML? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKlh1lwe2rY
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