HOW MARKUP WORKS

 HTML is a markup language. Writing in a markup language means that you start with the text of your page and add special tags around words and paragraphs. The tags indicate the different parts of the page and produce different effects in the browser. You’l l earn more about tags and how they’re used in the next section.

HTML has a defined set of tags you can use. You can’t make  up your own tags to create new styles or features. And just to make sure that thing are rally confusing, various browsers support different sets of tags. To further explain this, take a brief look at the history of HTML.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HTML TAGS

The HTML 3.2 specification was developed in early 1996. Several software vendors, including IBM, Microsoft,  nets cape communications corporation, Novell, softQuad, spyglass, and sum Microsystems, joined with the w3C to develop this specification. Some of the primary additions to HTML 3.2 included features such as tables, applets, and text flow around images. HTML 3.2 also provided full backward-compatibility with the existing HTML 2.0

NOTE

The enhancements introduced in HTML 3.2 are covered later in this book. You’ll learn more about  tables in lesson 8, “Building tables.” Lesson 11, “integrating multimedia: sound, video, and more”, tells you how to sue java applets.

HTML4.0 first; introduced in 1997, incorporated many new features that gave designers greater control over page layout than HTML 2.0 and 3.2. Like HTML 2.0 AND 3.2, THE W3C maintains their HTML 4.0 standard

Framesets (originally introduced in nets cape 2.0) and floating frames (Originally introduced in Internet explorer 3.0) became an official part of the html 4.0 specification. Framesets are discussed in more detail in lesson 14, “working with frames and linked windows” we also see additional improvements to table formatting and rendering. By far, however, the most important change in HTMKL 4.0 was its increased integration with style sheets.

NOTE

If you’re interested in how HTML development is working and just exactly what’s going on art the W3C, check out the pages for HTML at the consortium’s site at http://www.w3.org/pub/www/markup/.

At one time, Microsoft and nets cape wee releasing new versions of their browsers frequently, competing to see who could add the most compelling new features to GYML without waiting for the standards process to catch up. these days, browsers release address  ,pre “finished” than it was in the late nineties. now developers must mostly concern themselves with  slight differences between how the browsers handle the a html they support rather than deciding against competing sets of features. confused yet? You’re not alone. The extra work involved in dealing with variations between browsers has been a headache for web developers for a very long time. Keeping track of all this information can be really confusing. Throughout this book, as I introduce each tag, I’ll explain any browser specific issues you’ll run into.