Part I
Creating Content with HTML
In This Part
Chapter 1: What Is a Markup Language?
Chapter 2: HTML Values and Units
Chapter 3: What Goes into a Web Document?
Chapter 4: The HEAD Elements
Chapter 5: Text Structuring Essentials
Chapter 6: Character Formatting Essentials
Chapter 7: Lists
Chapter 8: Links
Chapter 9: Tables
Chapter 10: Frames
Chapter 11: Forms
Chapter 12: Colors and Images
Chapter 13: Multimedia
Chapter 14: Special Characters
Chapter 15: Internationalization and Localization
Chapter 16: Scripts
Chapter 17: Dynamic HTML
Chapter 18: The Future of HTML: HTML5
Chapter 1
What Is a Markup Language?
In This Chapter
- What Are We Doing Here?
- Understanding Hypertext
- Understanding Markup Instructions
- Understanding Markup Language
The World Wide Web is a technology beast. If you have read this book's introduction, you should have at least a passing familiarity with how the Web startedâits humble beginnings to bring cross-referenced textual documents to the masses via the connectivity of the Internet.
You are reading this book, so it's a good assumption that you are familiar with what the Web has become todayâa collection of technologies capable of transporting numerous media across the Internet for consumption directly on your desktop.
However, it's important not to forget the Web's humble beginnings because the technologies used for the very first simple documents are still in use today, and must be understood. This chapter helps frame the reasons why.
What Are We Doing Here?
Why are we diving into technical topics instead of talking about how to create Web documents? Well, technically we are talking about how to create Web documents. The more you know about the technology behind the Web, the better prepared you will be to use the technology to your benefit, and the easier it will be to create Web documents.
Note
If you really do want to just dive into creating documents, check out Chapter 19, âWeb Development Software,â which covers tools you can use to quickly create documents without knowing the underlying technology behind it all. However, keep in mind that such tools do not always accomplish the goal you desire and sometimes their results need manual tweakingâtweaking that you will learn to perform throughout the other chapters in this book.
So back to the question: What are we doing here?
Answer: Web documents are created using several different technologies. The main technology is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML is responsible for telling a Web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Mac Safari, Google Chrome, and so on) how text and other objects in a Web document should appear. Whether the text should be small, large, bold, underlined, or right or left justified is largely determined by the HTML embedded in a Web page.
As a consumer of Web pages, you rarely experience HTML directly; it's hidden from the end user by the browser. However, as a creator of content, you need to be intimately familiar with HTML and its uses, which is why we are starting from scratch and covering some basics first. Don't worry, the good stuff is right around the corner and we will get started creating actual content soon enough.
Understanding Hypertext
By its very nature, the Web and its content overcome many of the limitations of standard, linear text. This concept is best illustrated by a comparison of a book (in particular, a reference book) to the Web. For example, consider a cross-reference in a book. Accessing the cross-reference requires you to look up the page number, textual reference, or other object being referred to. On the Web, the reference is (usually) a single mouse click away.
Also, documents on the Web can be designed to vary depending on the user accessing them. Books, conversely, remain static objects no matter who is reading them.
The word âHypertextâ was created along with other Internet terms and technologies during the evolution of the Web. It was coined to describe documents that could change, redirect, and otherwise overcome the linearity of normal text. In short, âHypertextâ describes text on the World Wide Web.
Understanding Markup Instructions
Markup languages are not a difficult concept to grasp; most of you have âmarked something upâ at one point or another. F...