WHAT IS HTML
HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE IS THE STANDARD MARKUP LANGUAGE FOR
DOCUMENTS DESIGNED TO BE DISPLAYED IN A WEB BROWSER. IT DEFINES
THE CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF WEB CONTENT. IT IS OFTEN ASSISTED BY
TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS CASCADING STYLE SHEETS AND SCRIPTING
LANGUAGES SUCH AS JAVASCRIPT.
WHO CREATED HTML?
• The first version of HTML was written by Tim Berners-Lee
in 1993. Since then, there have been many different
versions of HTML.
• Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist at the CERN research
institute in Switzerland invented HTML in 1991. This first
version consisted of 18 HTML tages. Now, there are
currently about 140 HTML tags, although not all of them
are supported by modern browsers
HISTORY
The first version of HTML was published in 1993, but
the actual work on building this markup language
took several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
HTML’s foundations were laid out in CERN, the
European Organization for Nuclear Research.
HISTORY
The initial idea behind Hypertext Markup
Language was to help CERN researchers
organize scientific information. That’s why the
earliest iterations of HTML were rudimentary
and utilitarian.
HISTORY
In this period, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee
introduced the first set of HTML tags. These could form
a basic structure that allows documents to link to each
other through a nascent system of hypertext. It’s
important to point out that these pioneering steps still
had nothing to do with web browsers or interactive
web applications we know today.
HISTORY
However, it soon became evident that HTML is
able to transcend its scientific origins to
completely change the way information is
presented online.
HTML 1
The history of HTML officially started in 1993 when
Berners-Lee published the inaugural version of this
markup language. This was the first attempt to
organize the burgeoning expanse of information on
the Internet. HTML 1.0 introduced a basic yet
groundbreaking set of tags for structuring digital
documents.
The original contained only 18 HTML tags, but
this was enough to organize a simple web page
in a user-friendly manner. Some of the main
HTML elements included:
Headings
Paragraphs
Basic text formatting (bold/italic)
Lists
This was a revolutionary moment in the history of the
Internet, but the initial version of HTML had many
practical issues. For instance, it focused on static
content that left little room for interactive web page
elements. In addition, it was difficult to organize the
layout of web pages because the language lacked the
corresponding HTML elements.
On the other hand, the sheer simplicity of
HTML ensured quick adoption that led to the
quick expansion of the Internet.
HTML 2
The second version of HTML — released in 1995 — marked a
significant leap forward in the evolution of the Hypertext Markup
Language. The main goal of HTML 2.0 was to standardize the
markup language as the Web rapidly expanded.
That’s why the Internet Engineering Task Force formed a special
HTML working group in 1994 to deal with the standardization of
HTML.
This HTML specification added new elements to
the program to refine the structure and
functionality of web documents. For example,
it introduced the table tag to support tabular
data presentation, but dozens of other
elements were also added to the system.
At about the same time, Microsoft launched its
Internet Explorer on August 16, 1995. This
operating system played a big role in the early
popularization of the World Wide Web, which
consequently contributed to the further
adoption of HTML.
HTML 3
The W3C soon launched its first HTML version
officially labeled 3.2. This one added new elements
to the extending HTML features list to make the
system even more powerful. For instance, HTML
3.2 improved the table tag and introduced the form
tag for designing interactive web forms.
It also focused on multimedia elements. With
this release, HTML was capable of supporting
audio and video files. It also supported
embedding for external objects such as
documents or interactive media
HTML 4
The fourth iteration had a much more profound
impact on web development than its
predecessor. Apart from embracing CSS as a
standard in web page creation, HTML 4 added
a range of new features to enrich the code.
For instance, the alt tag made the system more
accessible by helping persons with impaired vision
understand the content of a web page through text
descriptions. In addition, HTML 4 started supporting
scripting languages (most notably JavaScript) to
make web content even more dynamic.
HTML5
HTML 5 was officially introduced by the W3C in
October 2014. This version of the markup language
was a big step forward compared to all of its
predecessors because it brought forth a host of new
features to enrich the web experience:
A strong focus on multimedia files
Advanced semantic elements
The last entry was particularly important for
the growing number of users who accessed the
Web through different types of devices. Though
fairly old from the tech perspective, HTML 5 is
still the most commonly used markup language
among web developers.