HTML, which is short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the code that programmers and web designers use to tell an internet browser what to display on a web page. HTML was one of the first programming languages designed to create web content. It is also one of the simplest forms of content building for the internet. Since the original HTML was created in the early 1980s, there have been several modifications to the code structure that have made it possible for web designers to create more dynamic websites that are loosely based on the HTML structure.
HTML was created when the internet was in its infancy. Prior to HTML, programmers and computer specialists used programming commands to communicate through the internet. Everything was text-based, which meant that there were no graphic interfaces. When the mouse was invented, computer developers realized that there could be a more user-friendly way for people to navigate through these bulletin board based websites. HTML was developed to take advantage of the power of the mouse to click on items that are highlighted by the code. Links, images, and media files became easy to post on internet sites using simple lines of HTML coding.
Most websites today operate using HTML 2.0, which is an updated version of the original HTML. It is a more intuitive coding system that allows website developers to skip some of the steps that they had to use when they worked with the original form of HTML. Coding with HTML can be very tedious because it requires strict attention to detail. If a line of code does not have the proper dash or letter, the entire website will display incorrectly. HTML includes opening and closing commands, which means that website developers have to remember to tell a command to close once they have put it into the code. Most coding errors involve commands that do not have the proper closing tags.
The days of writing HTML code by hand are long gone. Software as easily available as Microsoft Word include powerful HTML coding templates that anyone can use to create a website. Web developers use specific tools that will create the code for them as they add or remove items from their web templates. It is useful to be able to read and write HTML, however, because the web design software is still not as precise as HTML coding. There are times when it is helpful to be able to alter the HTML coding to get the proper placement of objects on a web page.
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