The Evolution of HTML
What is HTML?
HTML stands for “HyperText Markup Language” and is the standard language used to produce web pages and applications.
HTML was first presented by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, in 1989. Berners-Lee originally created the Web to allow physicists to collaborate and share their work with each other. Unbeknownst to him at this time, the Web would become one of the biggest tools in which people use to share information.
“This is a surprising place indeed for the beginnings of a technology which would, eventually, deliver everything from tourist information, online shopping and advertisements, financial data, weather forecasts and much more to your personal computer.” (W3.org, 1998)
Click here to view the world’s first webpage.
HTML 1.0
HTML 1.0 was the first version of HTML, used from 1989 to 1994. It was a very limited version and included only 20 elements. There wasn’t much that could be done with it and therefore most webpages ended up looking very similar due to the inability to do things such as; alter the page background, determine fonts and use tables and forms.
HTML 2.0
Created in 1995, this version was a significant improvement to HTML 1.0. “HTML 2.0 becomes the first official set of standards for HTML — the base standard by which all browsers were measured until HTML 3.2.” (Bartels, 2011). It was able to support the changing of a page background, text colour, text face, the use of tables and text boxes etc. It was around this time that W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) was created — an organisation which develops web standards. HTML 2.0 also started to support more browsers.
Problems for browsers
After the creation of HTML 2.0, people started wanting to do more with HTML. A company called Netscape had a browser called ‘Netscape Navigator’, the leading browser during this time, and they began to introduce new abilities called ‘Netscape extension tags’. Other browsers tried to recreate these tags to keep up with the current trends, however they were unable to get them to display in the same way. This meant that pages which were created using Netscape extension tags ended up looking bad in other browsers.
HTML 3.2
In January 1997 HTML 3.2 was endorsed by the W3 Consortium and approved of by many, including significant browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft. “HTML 3.2 included tables, applets, text flow around images, subscripts and superscripts.” (W3.org, 1998)
HTML 4.01
This version of HTML, created in 1999, included cascading style sheets (css) which allowed aspects such as text, colour, font and backgrounds to be easily altered. Instead of these aspects being included directly within the webpage, they are now separated, making it much more trouble-free.
HTML 5
HTML 5 is the current version of HTML which is used. “We’ve come a long way since HTML could barely handle a simple page layout. HTML5 can be used to write web applications that still work when you’re not connected to the net; to tell websites where you are physically located; to handle high definition video; and to deliver extraordinary graphics.” (Marshall, 2017). HTML 5 continues to evolve and is supported by all of the biggest browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera and Edge.
HTML has come very far since the first version (HTML 1.0), which only offered simple features meaning most webpages looked very similar. Since then the W3 Consortium has been established, css has been created, more features are supported by browsers and in general, more can be done with HTML. This means there’s less confusion, universal standards and ease of use. HTML is constantly progressing and changing — in a few decades, we can expect that HTML will have advanced even further.
Sources used:
Bartels, A. (2011). Internet History: HTML Code Evolution 1.0 to 5.0. [Blog] Rackspace. Available at: https://blog.rackspace.com/internet-history-html-evolution [Accessed 6 Oct. 2018].
Marshall, G. (2017). HTML5: what is it?. [online] TechRadar. Available at: https://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/html5-what-is-it-1047393 [Accessed 6 Oct. 2018].
Online HTML Editor. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-free-online-html-editors/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z2nbgk7 [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].
W3.org. (n.d.). Chapter 2 — A history of HTML. [online] Available at: https://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].
W3 (n.d.). Dave Raggett, co-editor of the HTML 4 specification, at work composing at the keyboard at his home in Boston.. [image] Available at: https://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html [Accessed 6 Oct. 2018].
W3 (n.d.). Members of the World Wide Web Consortium at the MIT site. [image] Available at: https://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html [Accessed 6 Oct. 2018].