HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the language used to describe the overall structure of webpages as well as its contents. In comparison, CSS is used to describe the appearance of webpages and JavaScript is used to control the functionality of webpages.

HTML has a fairly long history, dating back to 1993. At the beginning, there was no standard way to display HTML code, meaning websites would have to be written differently for different browsers. As time went on, web standards were developed and adopted by browsers. Newer versions of HTML were released, adding new features.

All browsers now are capable of running HTML code in more or less the same way. These include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and more. The most recent version of HTML is HTML5.

Elements

At its core, HTML is made of elements, which describe and label what things should be. Most elements consists of an opening and closing tag. For example, the <p> element encloses text that is meant to be a paragraph. 

<p>The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.</p>

The structure of webpages arises from the order of elements and the ability to nest different elements together. 

<h1>My <i>Three</i> Favourite Colours</h1>
<ul>
    <li>Red</li>
    <li>Blue</li>
    <li>Yellow</li>
</ul>

My Three Favourite Colours

  • Red
  • Blue
  • Yellow

Don't worry if this does not make sense yet. We will learn more about the different elements and how they work soon.

Resources