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Hypertext Markup Language

Hypertext markup language (HTML) is the standard language for creating webpages and applications, and it is thus one of the foundational technologies of the World Wide Web. Hypertexts are links that connect webpages. The term markup originates from the traditional practice of “marking up” the margins of a paper manuscript with printer’s instructions. Every one of the world’s billions of webpages is written in a version of HTML. It is how all web browsers interpret text, images, film, and audio material to display them as intended. When documents are sent to a webpage, HTML structures them semantically, which gives them their appearance. It can embed programs such as Java to create the style and content of webpages. In addition to webpages, HTML is used in CD-ROMs, e-books, and desktop computers. HTML applications are Windows programs whose source code is HTML and are popular with systems administrators. This entry introduces HTML and explores its current versions and applications.

The History of HTML

HTML structures webpages, and cascading style sheets (or CSS, a language designed for document presentation) are overlain to change their appearance. CSS separates document contents from their appearance, and is necessary for designing the color, layout, and fonts of webpages, and allows them to appear differently on different devices or screen sizes.

The origins of HTML may be traced back to Tim Berners-Lee, the “father of the World Wide Web.” In 1980, Berners-Lee, then a contractor at the particle physics laboratory CERN, proposed a prototype of ENQUIRE, a system for CERN researchers to use and share documents. In 1989, he proposed an Internet-based hypertext system. The creation of HTML drew heavily from CERN’s internal application, standard generalized markup language (SGML), an internationally agreed-on standard. HTML was proposed as a simpler version of SGML. It was designed to facilitate the electronic exchange of documents, and it appeared precisely when hypertext was born, domain names were starting to be used, and the web came into being: It was the language for publishing on the Internet. Much of its appeal came from its simplicity and ease of use (it is also free). When Berners-Lee’s early drafts expired in 1994, the Internet Engineering Task Force created an HTML Working Group, which charged Dan Connelly with developing the standard, HTML 2.0 (published as RFC 1866), against which all future models would be based. With the appearance of multiple browsers in the 1990s such as Mosaic, Netscape, and Internet Explorer, HTML’s popularity soared, although it risked fragmentation in the midst of the “browser wars.” Vendors united around a set of HTML standards. When the Working Group was disbanded in 1995, the World Wide Web Consortium formed the HTML Editorial Review Board to help with the standardization process. Subsequent versions appeared over the next two decades, including HTML 3.0 in 1995, HTML 4.0 in 1999, HTML 5.0 in 2012, and HTML 5.1 in 2016. HTML 5 has become extremely widely used worldwide.

HTML’s Ongoing Development

HTML creates the design and content of webpages using a variety of tags and attributes, both adopted from SGML. Pairs of starting and ending tags (e.g., <p>) surround elements, which specify headings, paragraphs, links, style, and meta-information, among other things (Figure 1). Browsers do not display the HTML tags but use them to render the content of the page. Tags are contained within less than (<) and greater than (>) style brackets; in between is the closed tag content (Figure 2). As HTML went through successive revisions, the number of elements multiplied. All HTML documents start with <HTML><HEAD>(contents of the document)<BODY> and end with </BODY></HTML>. There are hundreds of tags, which designate fonts and text sizes, tables, colors, and images and specify hyperlinks. HTML entities include icons and symbols, mathematical operators, arrows, geometric shapes, and much more.

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