HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the primary language used to present webpages and content over the internet. The programmer or the user codes the source, position and format of the visual elements using brackets to define parameters and the web browser of the client of the end user interprets this code and presents the required output on the screen.
Coding in HTML
Since HTML is a markup language it uses a set of tags that allows the programmer to set the location of the content. HTML is therefore structured for webpages and the programmer arranges the data to be presented in predefined positions such as <heading>, <body> etc. The “<text>” or open bracket used by HTML defines where the function must start from and “</text>” or close bracket defines where the function ends. In recent versions of HTML, the programmer can easily define paragraphs, footers and sub-headings.
To further refine the webpage, HTML allows the user to define attributes within tags. For example, the user may program the alignment of a paragraph or give it a border or insert a picture. Once the attributes are set, the tag will conform to those and the output presented will include text as well as the effect of attributes.
HTML document codes all conform to a set standard that start with <html> and end with </html>. It is essential for each HTML document to have the tags “html”, “head”, “title” and “body” The internet is therefore a lot of HTML documents being shared over various computers.
How HTML presents webpages
Once the user has drawn up the code to be presented on the webpage, it is posted to the websites domain till a user accesses it. Once the website is accessed, the user’s computer sends the code to the client’s computer. The web browser being used by the client receives the code and interprets it and displays the text and all the programmed display parameters to the client. The actual code is not visible to the client.
XML and HTML
Coding using HTML tags can become complex when designing large webpages with very specific formatting. HTML was redesigned as Extensible HTML (XHTML), which is from the family of XML languages, to reduce the complexity and retain the processing power. HTML had issues with different types of browsers which is why some webpages only open on specific browsers. To reduce browser dependency, XML allows you to define tags and eliminates the problem of erroneous HTML across all browsers.
