basic intro to html
we're going to take a little trip down memory lane for a little history lesson.
html (hypertext markup language) is the basic framework of the world wide web. so, what's a markup language, you ask? well, the simple answer is that it's in between a human language and a computer language. clear as mud?
okay, think of it this way...
the basic format of a web page is a page. so, it's a document. just like word files .doc, or rtf (rich text format), word perfect, etc. all of these document formats have one thing in common, and that's the ability to format text.
if you pick arial as a font, two markers are made behind the scenes--an opening marker and a closing marker. everything in between the two markers gets plastered in good old arial.
with html, the keyword is hypertext. so, what's hypertext, you ask? well, it's a link, or some text (or and image) that, when clicked, performs some action (like taking you to a new page).
with html, the whole page is just plain text. i'll say it again--html is just plain text with an extension of .htm or .html rather than .txt.
to make the page do what you want it to do, you simply insert these control codes, called tags, wherever you want them. a great example is the a tag, which is what makes a link.
so, if you write the word link into a web page and then look at it in a web browser, you'll see the word link. but if you wrap an a tag around it, like so...
<a href="http://cidviscous.blogspot.com">link</a>
and then reload the page, it will look like this...
link
pretty cool, huh? and it's not that hard. html tags are all enclosed in greater than and less than brackets. and if you look, you'll see the beginning tag, and then the actual word that's gonna be turned into the link, and then the closing tag (which is the same tag, preceded by a slash). everything in the middle (in our case, the word link) gets turned into a link.
that simple.
now, there are hundreds of other tags to do pretty much anything you wanna do. images, formatting controls, comments, font controls, tables, forms, whatever....
but how do they do all the cool things that html doesn't allow for, you ask? well, this is where it branches off into a few different vectors.
dhtml--dynamic html. dhtml never quite caught on in and of itself, but it basically offered some more advanced controls for laying out your pages and moving things around the page. it eventually gave way to css....
cascading style sheets (css) offer more advanced and flexible methods of formatting the page (controlling the way it looks). you can get absolute positioning (the ability to put an object in an exact location). the reason this is useful is that it gives the author the ability to control exactly where something will show up, regardless of the web browser or the screen resolution (within certain limitations)...
css takes a little bit to get used to, but you can definately get some very interesting results with it. but what happens when you push style sheets to their limit?
scripting!
so, what's a script? scripts are the next step closer to a real programming language. in fact, scripts are known as interpreted programming languages. but before i get too far ahead of myself i'm gonna stop. scripts need their own explanation and i'm going to take the time to do it right, so keep your eyes peeled. in the mean time, here's a few good links....
the w3c html intro
htmlgoodies
htmlbasix
w3c schools
davesite html tutorial
ncsa's beginners guide
keep exploring, everybody....
--theAdmin
html (hypertext markup language) is the basic framework of the world wide web. so, what's a markup language, you ask? well, the simple answer is that it's in between a human language and a computer language. clear as mud?
okay, think of it this way...
the basic format of a web page is a page. so, it's a document. just like word files .doc, or rtf (rich text format), word perfect, etc. all of these document formats have one thing in common, and that's the ability to format text.
if you pick arial as a font, two markers are made behind the scenes--an opening marker and a closing marker. everything in between the two markers gets plastered in good old arial.
with html, the keyword is hypertext. so, what's hypertext, you ask? well, it's a link, or some text (or and image) that, when clicked, performs some action (like taking you to a new page).
with html, the whole page is just plain text. i'll say it again--html is just plain text with an extension of .htm or .html rather than .txt.
to make the page do what you want it to do, you simply insert these control codes, called tags, wherever you want them. a great example is the a tag, which is what makes a link.
so, if you write the word link into a web page and then look at it in a web browser, you'll see the word link. but if you wrap an a tag around it, like so...
<a href="http://cidviscous.blogspot.com">link</a>
and then reload the page, it will look like this...
link
pretty cool, huh? and it's not that hard. html tags are all enclosed in greater than and less than brackets. and if you look, you'll see the beginning tag, and then the actual word that's gonna be turned into the link, and then the closing tag (which is the same tag, preceded by a slash). everything in the middle (in our case, the word link) gets turned into a link.
that simple.
now, there are hundreds of other tags to do pretty much anything you wanna do. images, formatting controls, comments, font controls, tables, forms, whatever....
but how do they do all the cool things that html doesn't allow for, you ask? well, this is where it branches off into a few different vectors.
dhtml--dynamic html. dhtml never quite caught on in and of itself, but it basically offered some more advanced controls for laying out your pages and moving things around the page. it eventually gave way to css....
cascading style sheets (css) offer more advanced and flexible methods of formatting the page (controlling the way it looks). you can get absolute positioning (the ability to put an object in an exact location). the reason this is useful is that it gives the author the ability to control exactly where something will show up, regardless of the web browser or the screen resolution (within certain limitations)...
css takes a little bit to get used to, but you can definately get some very interesting results with it. but what happens when you push style sheets to their limit?
scripting!
so, what's a script? scripts are the next step closer to a real programming language. in fact, scripts are known as interpreted programming languages. but before i get too far ahead of myself i'm gonna stop. scripts need their own explanation and i'm going to take the time to do it right, so keep your eyes peeled. in the mean time, here's a few good links....
the w3c html intro
htmlgoodies
htmlbasix
w3c schools
davesite html tutorial
ncsa's beginners guide
keep exploring, everybody....
--theAdmin
posted by cid at 10:27 AM
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