HTML, an acronym for HyperText Markup Language, is the primary coding language behind web pages and applications. HTML uses a set of key words called tags wrapped in angled brackets. HTML tags generally appear in pairs, the first one is called an opening tag and the second one is the closing tag, although there are a select few elements such as the image tag, that only have the opening tag. The web browser reads these tags and composes the visual document for the user. HTML documents are almost always accompanied by Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) documents to format the visual appearance for pages to improve the users viewing pleasure.
HTML has been the web standard from the early 1990′s with the first publicly available description of HTML being cited in a document by Tim Berners-Lee, the architect of the World Wide Web technology. From its birth back in the 1990′s, HTML has seen many standards amendments, with HTML 4.0 being the latest revision published by the world Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in late 1997 and updated in April 1998 and again in December 1999 with minor amends taking the version to 4.01.
Since December ’99 there has been no significant change of the HTML specification by the W3C, who were focusing their efforts on a variant of HTML, XHTML 2.0, which is an extension of the HTML standard and utilizes the XML framework to create documents. The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) started work on the HTML 5 specification in 2004. In 2009 the W3C decided to suspend work on XHTML 2.0 and joined WHATWG on the development of HTML 5.
HTML 5 is envisioned to include elements of both HTML 4.01 and XML, to create a single markup language that can be written with either HTML or XHTML syntax. It has also been designed to extend and improve the variety of markup available in web documents to help progress coding standards and deliver more semantic, and humanly readable, code. Many features of HTML5 have been built with mobile devices, such as Iphones, in mind to help bridge the gap between desktop and mobile browsing experiences.
With HTML 5 comes new markup tags and web APIs to allow developers to do more on their sites. These APIs including the Canvas and Drag-and-Drop interface are intended to help reduce the need for web browser plugins, for instance, the canvas tag can handle things that normally require Adobe’s flash to do. The HTML 5 specification also drops previously deprecated tags such as the “font” and “center” tags altogether in favour of newer tags such as span and div which can do the same job with less code bloat.
Not all media coverage of the HTML 5 specification has been encouraging, with the new Data Storage API being under fire over its security and having the potential for hackers to be able to access saved data in the API’s Data Store. Another point to note is the fact that some older-but-still-popular web browsers including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer series version 8 and below will not support the majority of the HTML 5 specification and with latest version of the browser being unavailable to people using their still popular Windows XP operating system, such as government bodies, it is clear there is still a long way to go before HTML 5 becomes the next web standard.
This means there is still plenty of time for Microsoft to catch up and release a browser for all OS versions that supports the specification, as well as the CSS3 Specification.
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HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (6th Edition)"...lucid, in-depth descriptions of the behavior of every HTML tag on every major browser and platform, plus enough dry humor to make the book a pleasure to read."
--Edward Mendelson, PC Magazine
"When they say 'definitive' they're not kidding."
--Linda Roeder, About.com
Put everthing you need to know about HTML & XHTML at your fingertips. For nearly a decade, hundreds of thousands of web developers have turned to HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide to master standards-based web development. Truly a definitive guide, the book combines a unique balance of tutorial material with a comprehensive reference that even the most experienced web professionals keep close at hand. From basic syntax and semantics to guidelines aimed at helping you develop your own distinctive style, this classic is all you need to become fluent in the language of web design.
The new sixth edition guides you through every element of HTML and XHTML in detail, explaining how each element works and how it interacts with other elements. You'll also find detailed discussions of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is intricately related to web page development. The most all-inclusive, up-to-date book on these languages available, this edition covers HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, and CSS2, with a preview of the upcoming XHTML2 and CSS3. Other topics include the newer initiatives in XHTML (XForms, XFrames, and modularization) and the essentials of XML for advanced readers. You'll learn how to:
- Use style sheets to control your document's appearance
- Work with programmatically generated HTML
- Create tables, both simple and complex
- Use frames to coordinate sets of documents
- Design and build interactive forms and dynamic documents
- Insert images, sound files, video, Java applets, and JavaScript programs
- Create documents that look good on a variety of browsers
The authors apply a natural learning approach that uses straightforward language and plenty of examples. Throughout the book, they offer suggestions for style and composition to help you decide how to best use HTML and XHTML to accomplish a variety of tasks. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, and what makes sense to those who view your web pages and what might be confusing. Written for anyone who wants to learn the language of the Web--from casual users to the full-time design professionals--this is the single most important book on HTML and XHTML you can own.
Bill Kennedy is chief technical officer of MobileRobots, Inc. When not hacking new HTML pages or writing about them, "Dr. Bill" (Ph.D. in biophysics from Loyola University of Chicago) is out promoting the company's line of mobile, autonomous robots that can be used for artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic research, and education.
Chuck Musciano began his career as a compiler writer and crafter of tools at Harris Corporations' Advanced Technology Group and is now a manager of Unix Systems in Harris' Corporate Data Center.








