#1 Introduction to HTML

Introduction to HTML.

What is HTML?

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, which is the most widely used language on the Web to develop web pages. 

HTML was created by Berners-Lee in late 1991 but “HTML 2.0” was the first standard HTML specification which was published in 1995.

HTML 4.01 was a major version of HTML and it was published in late 1999. Though HTML 4.01 version is widely used currently we are having the HTML-5 version which is an extension to HTML 4.01, and this version was published in 2012.

Why to learn HTML?

Originally, HTML was developed with the intent of defining the structure of documents like headings, paragraphs, lists, and so forth to facilitate the sharing of scientific information between researchers.

Now, HTML is being widely used to format web pages with the help of different tags available in HTML language.

HTML is a MUST for students and working professionals to become a great Software Engineer specially when they are working in Web Development Domain. I will list down some of the key advantages of learning HTML:

  • Create Web site - You can create a website or customize an existing web template if you know HTML well.
  • Become a web designer - If you want to start a carrer as a professional web designer, HTML and CSS designing is a must skill.
  • Understand web - If you want to optimize your website, to boost its speed and performance, it is good to know HTML to yield best results.
  • Learn other languages - Once you understands the basic of HTML then other related technologies like javascript, php, or angular are become easier to understand.

History of HTML

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML

YearVersion
1989Tim Berners-Lee invented www
1991Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML
1993Dave Raggett drafted HTML+
1995HTML Working Group defined HTML 2.0
1997W3C Recommendation: HTML 3.2
1999W3C Recommendation: HTML 4.01
2000W3C Recommendation: XHTML 1.0
2008WHATWG HTML5 First Public Draft
2012WHATWG HTML5 Living Standard
2014W3C Recommendation: HTML5
2016W3C Candidate Recommendation: HTML 5.1
2017W3C Recommendation: HTML5.1 2nd Edition
2017W3C Recommendation: HTML5.2
2021W3C Working Group Note, 28 January 2021

This tutorial follows the latest HTML5 standard.

Basic HTML Document

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <title>Page Title</title>
</head>

<body>

  <h1>My First Heading</h1>
  <p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>

</html>
  • The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document
  • The <html> element is the root element of an HTML page
  • The <head> element contains meta-information about the HTML page
  • The  element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab)
  • The <body> element defines the document’s body and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc.
  • The <h1> element defines a big text (there are few more heading tags we will see)
  • The <p> element defines a paragraph

What is an HTML Element (tags)?

An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:

<tagname>content goes here...</tagname>

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
Start tagElement contentEnd tag

My First Heading

My first paragraph.


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Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. See you in the next post.

Next: #2 Editors for HTML