21-03-2014, 12:21 PM
Hypertext Markup Language
INTRODUCTION
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a much larger document-processing system. To write HTML pages, you won't need to know a whole lot about SGML.
However, knowing that one of the main features of SGML is that it describes the general structure of the content inside documents, rather than its actual appearance on the page or onscreen, does help. This concept might be a bit foreign if you're used to working with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors.
HTML Describes Page Structure
Most HTML documents have common elements such as titles, paragraphs, and lists.
Before you start writing it's possible to identify and define a set of elements in that document and give them appropriate names. Each section of text conforms to one of a set of styles that are predefined before you start working.
HTML Does Not Describe Page Layout
For the most part, HTML doesn't say anything about how a page looks when it's viewed. HTML tags just indicate that an element is a heading or a list; they say nothing about how that heading or list is formatted.
The only thing you have to worry about is marking which section is supposed to be a heading.
A Brief History of HTML Tags
The base set of HTML tags, the lowest common denominator, is referred to as HTML 2.0. HTML 2.0 is the old standard. It is a written specification that was developed and is maintained by the W3C, it's the set of tags that all browsers must support.
The HTML 3.2 specification was developed in early 1996 and several software vendors, including IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Netscape Corporation, Novell Corporation, SoftQuad Corporation, Spyglass Corporation, and Sun Microsystems Corporation, joined with the W3C to develop this specification.