• Translation

HTML is the language that unites the World Wide Web. With just a set of simple tags, humanity has managed to create an incomparable system of interconnected pages and Web sites: from Amazon, eBay and Wikipedia, to personal blogs and sites dedicated to cats that look like Hitler.

HTML5 is the latest version of this language. But despite the fact that it is going to bring with it significant changes and new opportunities, it cannot be said that this is happening for the first time and that the language has not developed in any way before. It has developed and constantly improved, and since its inception.

Like the World Wide Web in general, HTML - HyperText Mark-up Language - is the brainchild of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. In 1991, he wrote a paper entitled "HTML Tags", in which he described just under two dozen tags he proposed for marking up web pages.

Idea to use for this code words inside the triangle brackets, however, does not belong to Sir Tim. Such a system already existed at that time and was used in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), and instead of inventing something from scratch, Sir Tim considered it more rational to take existing solutions as a basis. A similar approach was used throughout the entire development process to HTML5.

From IEFT to W3C: the road to HTML 4

There was never a version of HTML 1. The first official specification was HTML 2.0, published by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Many of the language features described in this specification were based on third-party developments already in use. For example, tag for inserting pictures into pages was implemented in the leading browser at that time (we are talking about 1994) Mosaic browser, and then simply migrated to the standard for HTML 2.0.

The IEFT baton was later picked up by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), which handled all subsequent versions of HTML. In the second half of the nineties, active work was carried out to revise and change the specifications, which eventually (more precisely, in 1999) gave birth to HTML 4.01.

After this, the first key turning point came in the history of HTML.

XHTML 1: HTML as XML

A new version The markup language after HTML 4.01 was called XHTML 1.0. The "X" in the name stood for eXtreme, and web developers were required to cross their arms in front of them every time they said the word.

No, of course not. In fact, the “x” stood for eXtensible (“extensible”), and crossing the arms was optional.

The specification itself for XHTML 1.0 was no different from HTML 4.01. No new tags or parameters were added - the only difference was in the syntax rules. While in HTML developers were given complete freedom regarding the style of writing code, in XHTML they were required to adhere to the rules of the XML language - much more rigid and intolerant of liberties - on which most of the technologies developed by the Consortium were based.

The strict rules, however, came in handy. They encouraged coders to adhere to a single style, for example - to write all tags and parameters exclusively in lower case, whereas in HTML you could do it as you please.

The release of XHTML 1.0 coincided with increased support for style sheets - CSS - in modern browsers, and XHTML's strict syntax gained a foothold in the developer community with a reputation for the best way writing markup code.

Then there was XHTML 1.1.

If version 1.0 was just HTML made under XML, then XHTML 1.1 is already real, pure XML. In the sense that it was no longer possible to apply mime-type to it text/html and needed to designate the document as XML formatted. However, in that case, the most popular browser at that time would not have been able to display it - Internet Explorer, - so putting this language into practice was clearly not an option.

It seemed that the W3C, in its developments, was beginning to lose touch with the reality in which the World Wide Web lived.

XHTML 2: no, it doesn’t fit into any gates anymore

If Dustin Hoffman's character in The Graduate were a web designer, the W3C would have only one word to tell him: XML.

The consortium was confident that HTML had become obsolete after version 4, and began work on XHTML 2, the goal of which was to lead the web to a bright XML future. And although the name remained the same, the new version had absolutely nothing to do with XHTML 1. Moreover, it was not intended to be backwards compatible with its predecessors and older versions of HTML (and therefore with all existing web content). Instead, it should have introduced a new, clean language, unencumbered by any vestiges of past specifications.

In other words, it was nonsense.

Split: W(HATWG) TF?

An uprising was brewing among the Consortium. It was obvious that he was going to lead the development of standards - albeit new, clean and beautiful - but completely unresponsive to the needs of the modern community of web designers and developers. Opera, Apple and Mozilla were clearly not happy with this, as they expected something completely different - more emphasis on formats that expand the possibilities for creating web applications.

The beginning of the changes was made in 2004 at one of the meetings. Ian Hickson, who at the time was an employee of Opera Software, put forward a proposal to develop HTML to a level that would allow the language to be used for web applications. The offer was rejected.

The disillusioned rebels were forced to break away from the Consortium and form their own group: the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, or WHATWG for short.

From Web Apps 1.0 to HTML5

The way WHATWG worked was somewhat different from that of the W3C. At W3C, issues are raised, discussed, and the final decision is made by popular vote. In WHATWG, issues are also raised and discussed, but the final decisions regarding what is included in the specification and what is not rest with the editor-in-chief, Ian Hickson.

At first glance, it may seem that the W3C system is more democratic and honest, but practice shows that endless disputes and internal squabbles terribly slow down the development process. In WHATWG, where everyone can contribute, but the boss has the final say, things move much faster. The editor-in-chief, however, does not have absolute power - a select group of senior officials can challenge his decision in the unlikely event that it requires it.

Initially, WHATWG was focused on two specifications - Web Forms 2.0 and Web Apps 1.0 - both of which were intended to be extensions to HTML. But over time, they were combined into one common one, simply called HTML5.

Reunion

While the WHATWG was working on HTML5, the W3C continued to fuss with its XHTML 2. This is not to say that the whole idea was going to shit. She slowly and slowly sank into it.

In October 2006, Sir Tim Berners-Lee admitted in his blog that the idea of ​​moving the web from HTML to XML was stupid. A few months later the W3C issued new installation to the HTML Working Group: It was wisely decided that future versions of HTML should build on the work of the WHATWG, rather than doing something from scratch.

All these reversals and changes in course have led to a somewhat confusing situation. For a time, the W3C was simultaneously working on two completely incompatible markup languages ​​- XTHML 2 and HTML 5 (note, with a space) - while the WHATWG, a separate organization, was working on the HTML5 specification (without a space) that was to become the basis for another specification in W3C. Horseradish will grow here, what's what. It would have been easier to figure out the sequence of events in Memento and the works of David Lynch.

XHTML is dead, long live XHTML syntax

The situation began to become clearer in 2009, when the W3C announced that there would be no more updates to XHTML 2. Essentially, they just officially admitted that the format was dead from birth.

However, in a strange way, instead of going unnoticed, the death of XHTML 2 gave rise to some kind of malicious seething. XML opponents turned the news into a call to abandon XHTML 1, although that, as we know, had nothing in common with XHTML 2. In turn, supporters of XHTML 1, adherents of strict syntax, were concerned that HTML5 would once again legitimize sloppy layout.

The latter, however, should not seem like a serious problem - as we will consider later, everyone has the right to choose the degree of strictness of HTML5 syntax for themselves.

HTML5 development

The current state of HTML5 isn't as murky as it used to be, but it's still not very transparent either.

Two organizations are currently working on this format. The WHATWG develops the specification based on the principle of “run first, test later.” The W3C HTML Working Group in turn takes this specification and puts it through a “test first, then run” process. As you can see, such cooperation can hardly be called strong and effective. But on at least, it seems like the question of “to put or not to put a space” in the name of the standard has been resolved (it’s not necessary to put it, if that’s the case - HTML5).

The biggest concern for web designers now who have already tried out some of the new language's capabilities is the question, "When will it be ready?" In an interview, Ian Hickson mentioned 2022 as the date when HTML5 will receive “proposed recommendation” status. This caused a wave of indignation among designers, since they had no idea what “proposed recommendation” meant, but they knew for sure that they clearly didn’t have enough fingers to count how many more years they had to wait until 2022.

If you look at it, the outrage is unfounded. In this case, “proposed recommendation” means that by this time browsers should have full support for all language features. In this case, targeting 2022 is even too bold; We all know that many browsers had a hard time catching up with even existing standards. Take Internet Explorer, which took more than ten years to even begin to support the tag. .

Date on which really we need to be aware that this is 2012, when HTML5 will be given the status of “candidate recommendation”, meaning that the specification has been finalized and, as such, the standard is ready.

But, of course, this will not mean that all of it will be immediately available for use - you will need to monitor how browsers gradually add support for certain features and start using them as they appear. It was exactly the same with CSS 2.1, in fact: we began to take advantage of the capabilities of this standard as browsers included support for it piecemeal. If we had preferred to wait for them to implement it in its entirety, we would still be waiting.

In other words, there will not be a moment when you can say “Bang, the time for HTML5 has come!” But you can start working with them now. Fortunately, this language was born not through a revolution, but in the process of evolution, and is based on what was created before it. Thus, we can say that if you use any previous versions HTML, you are already using HTML5.

Lesson 1

Topic: “My first Internet page”

What is HTML. History of creation.

Before we get started, let's figure out what HTML is and why it is needed? HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is intended for markup and design of documents published on the World Wide Web (WWW) or, more simply, HTML documents. Markup should be understood as service information that is not displayed on the screen, but determines the structure of the document and appearance its structural units. The creators made sure that this language was platform independent, i.e. could work in any operating environment. The main elements of the HTML language are descriptors (or tags) - operators whose names are enclosed in angle brackets. Documents marked up using this language are rendered in the same way by end-user browsers in most cases due to the fact that they "understand" and correctly process the structural elements of the HTML language. Source is text formatted using descriptors, and these elements are not visible to the visitor of the Web page, but only the result of their impact on the document.

The father of HTML is considered to be Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed transmitting information to the Internet in the form of hypertext documents with the ability to view them through a web browser. HTML was designed to be a universal language that all computers could understand. An HTML document is a regular Text Document with markup language elements included in it. Therefore, you can create an HTML document using any text editor, for example a notepad.

A feature of the HTML language is that it, in fact, only gives recommendations to the browser on how to interpret this or that element of the language. Those. the same language element can be displayed differently different browsers. In addition, browser developers began to introduce new elements that were perceived only by their browsers. Thus began the so-called “browser war”. Therefore, a professional developer faces a difficult task - a professionally made website should look the same when viewed in different types of browsers. To do this, you need to “test” your documents during the creation process. The most popular browsers today are Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, Opera, which run under the Windows operating system.

At the same time, HTML developers are constantly making efforts to achieve greater universality of the language. Currently, the international non-profit organization World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for the development of HTML. The consortium developed three versions of the HTML language - HTML3.2 (adopted in January 1997), HTML4.0 (adopted in December 1997), XHTML (adopted in January 2002).

Lecture 2. BasicsHTML. PossibilitiesHTML5.

1. History of the development of the html language

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed to the leadership of the International Center for High Energy (CERN) a project for a distributed hypertext system, which he called the World Wide Web (WWW). The original idea of ​​the system was to use a hypertext navigation system to combine all the many information resources of CERN into a single information system.

One of the components of the technology for creating a distributed hypertext system on the World Wide Web was hypertext markup language. HTML (HyperTextMarkupLanguage– hypertext document markup language), developed by Tim Berners-Lee based on the standard generalized markup language (SGML). Daniel W. Connolly wrote a Document Type Definition for it - a formal description of HTML syntax in SGML terms.

HTML developers were able to solve two problems:

provide hypertext database designers with a simple means of creating documents;

make this tool powerful enough to reflect the current understanding of the user interface of hypertext databases.

The first problem was solved by choosing a tagging model for document description. This model is widely used in systems for preparing documents for printing.

The HTML language allows you to mark up an electronic document that is displayed on the screen with a printing level of design; the resulting document can contain a wide variety of labels, illustrations, audio and video fragments, and so on. The language includes developed tools for creating different levels of headings, font selections, various lists, tables and much more.

The second important point that influenced the fate of HTML was that a regular text file was chosen as the basis.

Thus, a hypertext database in the WWW concept is a collection text files, marked up in the HTML language, which defines the form of information presentation (markup) and the structure of connections between these files and other information resources (hypertext links). Hypertext links, establishing connections between text documents, gradually began to unite a wide variety of information resources, including sound and video; As a result, a new concept arose - hypermedia.

This approach presupposes the presence of another component of the technology - a language interpreter. On the World Wide Web, interpreter functions are divided between the hypertext database Web server and the user interface. The server, in addition to accessing documents and processing hypertext links, provides pre-processing of documents, while the user interface interprets language constructs related to the presentation of information.

Versions

HTML 4.01 (changes, more significant than it seems at first glance) - December 24, 1999;

ISO/IEC 15445:2000 (so-called ISO HTML, based on HTML 4.01 Strict) - May 15, 2000.

HTML 5 - in development. The end of development is scheduled for 2014.

There is no official HTML 1.0 specification. Before 1995, there were many unofficial HTML standards. To make the standard version different from them, it was immediately given a second number.

Version 3 was proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in March 1995 and provided many new features, such as creating tables, wrapping text around images and displaying complex mathematical formulas, and support for the gif format. Even though this standard was compatible with the second version, its implementation was difficult for browsers of that time. Version 3.1 was never officially proposed, and the next version of the HTML standard was 3.2, which omitted many of the innovations of version 3.0 but added non-standard elements supported by the Netscape Navigator and Mosaic browsers.

HTML 4.0 saw some cleanup of the standard. Many items have been marked as obsolete and deprecated. deprecated). In particular, the font element, used to change font properties, has been marked as deprecated (CSS stylesheets are recommended instead).

In 1998, the World Wide Web Consortium began work on a new markup language based on HTML 4 but consistent with XML syntax. Subsequently, the new language was named XHTML. The first version of XHTML 1.0 was approved as a World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation on January 26, 2000.

The planned version of XHTML 2.0 was supposed to break compatibility with older versions of HTML and XHTML, but on July 2, 2009, the World Wide Web Consortium announced that the powers working group XHTML2 expires at the end of 2009. Thus, all further development of the XHTML 2.0 standard was suspended.

The World Wide Web Consortium is currently developing HTML version 5. A draft language specification appeared on the Internet on November 20, 2007.

Tim Berners-Lee
Creator of the HTML language

This article is about HTML A short overview of the language, its structure, characteristics, and history is given. This article is about HTML language is intended to be read for general development and at the initial stage of learning HTML, you can skip it and return to it later, after reading.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)- hypertext markup language. Websites are created using HTML language.

The creator of the HTML language is an outstanding British scientist - Tim Berners-Lee.

HTML versions

Before 1995, there was no official standard for the HTML language, but there were several non-standardized versions of the HTML language. On September 22, 1995, the first official standard of the HTML language was created, it immediately received the number 2.0 (HTML 2.0).

On January 14, 1997, version HTML 3.2 appeared,
December 18, 1997 HTML 4.0,
December 24, 1999 HTML 4.01

In the 00s, there was also XHTML markup language(same as HTML, but with stricter syntax). XHTML was intended to prepare webmasters for strict markup rules XML language. Thanks to strict markings, various programs and services that understand XML can effectively process data on sites written in XHTML, and in this language it has become possible to implement SVG, MathML, CML and other derivatives of the XML language.

XHTML existed in three versions: strict, transitional, and frameset; in the transitional version, you could use legacy tags such as center or font. On this moment, development XHTML language closed.

The modern version of the HTML language is HTML5, this is the version we will study in this tutorial. HTML5 is more convenient than previous languages ​​and has absorbed all their advantages, it also includes great importance semantics.

Language CSS and HTML

Starting from version 4 of the HTML language, change the appearance HTML tags It is recommended to use CSS language only. Therefore, it is advisable to study HTML and CSS languages ​​in parallel. In this HTML tutorial for beginners, we'll also take a look at the beginning aspects of the CSS language, but to continue learning, you can read it yourself

History of HTML

HTML language was created in 1991 by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee. At the time, Tim was working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and websites did not yet exist. Scientists working at this center needed reliable and effective way exchange of information.

The choice fell on SGML language, but it was too complicated and then Tim, based on SGML, created a simplified variation of it - HTML, thanks to which any scientist could create a simple document with information, framing it with various tags: paragraphs, headings, links, and post it on the Internet, and at the same time other scientists could read this information.

Initially, in HTML documents (on website pages), it was possible to place only text information, the ability to add media files: images, video and audio appeared a little later.

At the moment, support and development HTML language is engaged W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)- World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C consists of various working groups that implement and develop Internet standards and technologies.

Browser distribution table

HTML files usually have a .html or .htm extension. These files can be viewed using Internet browsers.

Table of browser names and the number of their distribution in the world, as of January 2016, in descending order:

Browser	Spreading
Google Chrome	54,22 %
Internet Explorer	14,67 %
Mozilla Firefox	14,61 %
Safari	9,43 %
Opera	1,96 %
Others	5,11 %

Language development hypertext markup

1. The concept of a standard generalized markup language SGML.

HTML is the main, but not the only document markup language. There are both more general and highly specialized solutions.

Historically, the first common format was SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language, pronounced SGML). SGML is the successor to the GML (Generalized MarkupLanguage) language developed in 1960 by IBM. metalanguage, that is, it can be used to define rules for constructing other document formatting languages.

SGML was designed for the collaborative development of machine documents in large government and aerospace projects. It was widely used in the printing and publishing industries, but its complexity made everyday use difficult. The main successors of SGML are HTML formats and XML.

2. Versions of hypertext markup language HTML.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the most common tool for creating Web pages today. HTML technology allows you to link documents of different formats with each other using hypertext links (hyperlinks or links). Such connections between documents located on servers around the world allow the system to work as if it were a single World Wide Web. An HTML document is a file containing plain text and special commands - tags. Tags define the visual formatting of text (color and font style, layout of headings, tables, etc.), as well as the relationships of this HTML document with other resources (images, style sheets, videos, other HTML documents, etc.) . In SGML, HTML and XML tags are drawn up with an opening (<) и закрывающей (>) angle brackets followed by Name tag, and then - commands specifying its action - attributes.

HTML was developed by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1991-1992 at the European Council for Nuclear Research in Geneva (Switzerland). HTML was initially created as a language for the exchange of scientific and technical documentation, suitable for people who are not specialists in the field of layout.

Then, in addition to simplifying the document structure, support for various types of hypertext links was introduced into HTML, and later multimedia capabilities were added to the language. HTML was originally intended for structuring and formatting documents without being tied to software display. Ideally, text with HTML markup should be reproduced without stylistic and structural distortions on equipment with different technical equipment (color screen of a temporary computer, limited screen mobile phone or a program for voice playback of texts). However, modern application of HTML very far from the original plan. Over time, the core idea of ​​HTML's platform independence has been sacrificed to modern multimedia and graphics needs.

HTML is an application of SGML and conforms to the international standard ISO 8879. The current standard, HTML 4.01, has been in existence since 1999. A draft fifth language standard has now been published. The new version of HTML promises to add numerous extensions to the language and provide a simpler, more logical and convenient system of rules.

Dynamic HTML or DHTML is a way to create an interactive Web site. DHTML originated as a set of methods dynamic creation and modifying Web pages by calling scripts from an HTML document. However, the development of these methods led to a complete revision of the concept of a Web document and the formation of the concept of the DOM (Document Object Model).

The DOM is a platform-independent programming interface that allows programs and scripts to manipulate the content of HTML and XML documents, as well as change their structure and design.

The DOM does not impose restrictions on the structure of the document. Any document of a known structure can be represented using the DOM as a tree of nodes, each of which contains an object. Nodes are connected by a parent-child relationship.

Initially, many browsers had their own DOM model, which was not compatible with others. In order to ensure compatibility, experts from the international consortium W3C classified this model into levels, for each of which their own specification was created. All these specifications are combined into a common group called W3C DOM.

3. The concept of extensible markup language XML.

XML (extensible Markup Language; pronounced ex-em-el) is a format that is a set of general syntactic rules. XML is intended for storing structured data (instead of existing database files), exchanging information between programs, and also for creating more specialized markup languages ​​based on it, sometimes called dictionaries. XML is a simplified set of the SGML language.

XML was created to provide interoperability when transferring structured data between information processing systems, especially when transferring data over the Internet.

XML has not replaced HTML. Moreover, we can confidently predict that this will not happen in the foreseeable future. The reasons are both the obvious disadvantages of XML (large document sizes, redundant syntax and limitations of the hierarchical data model embedded in the format), and a practically important fact that speaks in favor of HTML - most tasks do not require the full power of XML syntax; simple and productive HTML solutions are sufficient.