This page is for users with zero knowledge of HTML.
HTML has a lot of applications in the field of web designing and web development. Almost of the web developers use HTML languages. All the texts visible on a website page is written with the HTML languages. HTML has also version like in android (KitKat, LolliPop, Nougat and so on). Now the latest version of HTML language is HTML5 which is used by all the web developer.
Brief Explanation of HTML
HTML has an acronym of Hypertext Markup Languages. It is the most common languages of the Internet’s World Wide Web.
Hypertext means text possess some extra-ordinary characters like linking to another document, formatting media and so on.
Markup is the process of adding extra characters to the ordinary texts to make it a Hypertext.
To be a Language, it should have its own syntax and rules for proper communication.
You are also familiar that different media files have different file extension. Example: .mp4, .3gp, mkv are the most common file extensions of video files while for audio files, it is .mp3, .m4a. Similarly, images have .jpeg, .gif, .png file extensions. In such same way, an HTML documents have also its own file extensions. The file extensions of an HTML document are .html or .htm (these two have no difference, you can use anyone).
Example: index.html, test.htm, example.html
HTML History
It is not a far day that HTML was developed as a branch of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). SGML is a high-level mark-up language which has so many applications in the field of Defense System. As in HTML, SGML also defines different components of a document and describes formatting and hypertexts links. But HTML is easier than SGML. Besides HTML is best suited for transmitted across the Internet to many different types of computers whereas SGML is not suited for transmission across the Internet to many different types of computers, users, and browser’s applications. Tim Berners-Lee at Cern designed the original HTML document type in 1990. In 1992, Dan Connolly wrote the HTML development type and a brief HTML specification. In 1994, Dan Connolly and Karen Olson Muldrow rewrote the HTML specification. A complete list of these contributors can be found in the HTML specifications, which is now written by Dave Raggett.
Evolution of HTML
HTML was developed in four stages:
Level 0: This included only the basic structural elements and assumed that all browsers supported all features of level 0.
Level 1: It has advanced features like highlighted texts and graphics that were supported depending on the browser capability.
Level 2: It introduced the World Wide Web as an interactive medium. For example, one of the features is to fill out the form on the Internet.
Level 3: It introduced frames, videos, sounds, etc.
Merits of knowing HTML5
Actually, HTML5 was designed to replace both HTML4.01, XHTML, and the HTML DOM Level 2. HTML5 is the latest version which is now currently used by all the web developers. HTML5 has many advantages than the HTML4.0.1 Beyond just formatting, HTML5 describes the contents of a web page so that both humans and computers can read it. You can define text as emphasized or as a unit of time or even legal small print. Some of these descriptions will result in appearance changes as well. For instance, most emphasized text is bold, and most small print is small. But with HTML you have defined that text as semantically small print, and so a program could later come along and collect all the small print on your documents and compile it into a whole new document.
We should know that that HTML only cannot make a good website. But we can’t make website without HTML. Even though we can make your own website using WordPress, but you could not make in an effective way. So, it is mandatory to have the knowledge of HTML properly. HTML simply can layout the content of the webpages. But there are many ways that HTML can’t do such that HTML alone can make like the property float, left or right, padding property, text alignment, margin property, background-object property (which would do with CSS) and many so on. With the addition of HTML, we require CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JS (JavaScript), PHP (HyperText PreProcessor also called Personal Home Page) and MySQL (MyStructured Query Language). All are collectively known as AJAX. You need all this code language to make a awesome website design.
Applications of HTML5
Delivers rich content (graphics, movies, etc.) without the need for additional plugins (e.g., Flash).
Provides better semantic support for web page structure through the introduction of new structural element tags.
Provides a stricter parsing standard to simplify error handling, ensure more consistent cross-browser behavior, and simplify backward compatibility with documents written to older standards.
Provides better cross-platform support (i.e., to work well whether running on a PC, Tablet, or Smart Phone).
First basic Steps towards Computer Programming:
The first and foremost thing you need to realize before coding is that which text editor would you choose. If you are absolutely beginner in HTML, choose notepad which is already preloaded in every pc. There are innumerable numbers of text editor available. If you have some basic knowledge of HTML, you can use Notepad++ (probably it would be the best handling). If you are in intermediate in HTML, you can use Atom, Brackets, Sublime text, Visual Studio Code and many so on. I recommend using Notepad++ because it is very handle to use and many advanced features are available. Of course, you can choose on your own.
The above Codes are the essential needs for every and each HTML document.
Also, you should know what each line denotes and their roles.
Explanation of HTML Structure
<!DOCTYPE> Declaration
The <!DOCTYPE> (Document Type) declaration should not be missed in your HTML document, before the <html> tag. It is first and foremost thing to be declared in each and every HTML document. The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is not an HTML tag. It simply gives an instruction to the web browser about what version of HTML is encoding in the page because HTML has also version like 4.01 and 5. Actually, it denotes we are the coding the HTML language in the HTML5 version. Here, we are discussing only HTML5
<html> Tag
It defines an HTML document. We can add an extension like <html lang = "en">. It is not compulsory to add lang (language) extension to the <html> tag if you are beginner to HTML Language. It denotes that the <html> is encoding in English language.
<html lang="en-US">
<html lang="en-GB">
<html lang="en-US"> essentially means “this page is in the US style of English.”
In a similar way, <html lang="en-GB"> would mean “this page is in the United Kingdom style of English.”
<meta> Tag
UTF-8 (U from Universal Character Set + Transformation Format 8-bit blocks) is a character encoding capable of encoding all possible characters (called code points) in Unicode. The encoding is variable-length and uses 8-bit code units. <meta> tag is added to an HTML5 document to specify what the character is encoding on it.
<head> Tag
This <head> tag contains all the head elements viz. <title> tag, <style> tag, <base> tag, <link> tag, <meta> tag, <script> tag and <noscript> tag. In HTML5, it is mandatory to add this <head> tag to each and every HTML document. Click here, to learn more about <head> tag.
<title> Tag
The <title> tag is included between the <head> and </head> tag. Texts within the title tag can be seen at the tab of a web page. That’s word should be written within the title tag. But it is mandatory to have <head> and </head> tag in a HTML document. Click here, to learn more about <title> tag.
