HTML — The Language of the Internet

When you visit a Web site, what you are seeing is computer code which has been translated by the Web browser into text, graphics, and multimedia. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the basic code used to create Web pages.

HTML is used to define how data looks:

• Structure—how the content is arranged on the page
• Formatting—colors, fonts, and styles used for page elements
• Hyperlinks—link to another place on the page or to another Web page

Most Web pages today use more than straight HTML. Other languages used to create Web pages include:

• JavaScript—used to create dynamic elements such as pop-up menus, forms, and scrolling text.
• Java—used to create self-contained applications (called applets) which run within the Web browser.
• DHTML—Dynamic HTML—used to defined dynamic elements such as transitions between pages.
• XML— EXtensible Markup Language—used to describe data using custom tags defined in a Document Type Definition (DTD) document. XML tells the browser what the data is, not how it should look.