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HTML, The Language of the Web

Hypertext is a word attributed to Ted Nelson, who in the early 1960s dreamed of creating a computer program that could keep track of paths of thinking. By tracing the thought through the branches created when approaching the subject, the computer might coach the person researching from the viewpoint of experience, providing a constant resource.

The problem with that dream is the reality that remembering everything someone did isn't the point; getting to and using the content is. That's what Hypertext can mean, creating a structure that anyone can approach, figure out, and find their way through. Hypertext has more to do with providing layers of information -- a Web that is understandable to others -- and linking those layers through HTML so that people can easily access the content. Many people on the Web believe that the technology is both the savior and inhibiter of their efforts.

HTML

HTML is a language (actually a subset of the SGML language, but look into that if you want to) developed to show files on a number of different platforms. It was not designed to be a desktop publishing tool. That doesn't mean you can't create elegant Web pages. The challenge comes in working within the confines of this language and creating expressions which many people can view. HTML was designed as a structural language, concerned with the placement of different elements on the screen. By elements we mean graphics and text primarily, but sound files can be used and even video will be available in the coming years. But for now it is a simple language that offers more architectural than textual tricks.

What you do with HTML is place links on your page to different parts of the page, like another paragraph. Or you can point to an entirely different file, or even another Web site that you like. You can also arrange an email link, called a mailto:, which when clicked will set up an email screen. Links often appear blue and underlined on most browsers; these are the central tools to creating a good Web page. Links enable us to go beyond words and images (you can make graphics Links the same way you do text) and provide the movement of the Web.

HTML code begins and ends with a markup tag, or command, housed within a < and >. The code is concluded with a backslash in front of the same markup tag. That's all. It looks like this:

<TITLE>My Home Page</TITLE>

Putting your HTML markup tags in capital letters will help you find your code when editing. It is not necessary to do, but a good practice. On the Sample Code page, we have included many basic commands that will get you started. It is important to understand which HTML codes are universal and which are Netscape-specific. We begin by providing many of the universal codes, but visit our site on the Web and a complete listing of codes will be available.

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