This section focuses on what HTML is and the history of HTML.

HTML is what?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) was born in the early 1990s. It is not a programming language, but a markup language that tells browsers how to organize their pages. HTML is a markup language created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, and his colleague Daniel W.Connolly. It is an application of the standard generic markup language SGML.

It consists of a series of elements that can be used to surround different parts of content to make it appear or work in a certain way.

History of HTML

The first public description of HTML was a document called an “HTML tag,” first mentioned on the Internet by Tim Berners-Lee in late 1991. It describes 18 elements.

In 1993 in the first scheme Tim Berners-Lee and colleague Daniel W.Connolly published an Internet draft of the HTML specification “Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)”, which expired six months later.

Beginning in late 1993, its competing Internet draft “HTML+ (Hypertext Markup Format)” proposed standardizing already implemented functions, such as forms and filling out forms.

After the HTML and HTML+ drafts arrived in early 1994, the IETF created the HTML Working Group, which completed “HTML2.0”, the first HTML specification, in 1995.

HTML2 was released in 1995.

An HTML3 version was released in early 1997.

An HTML4 version was released in late 1997.

XHTML version 1.0 was released in 2000. This version must comply with some new, stricter specifications when writing markup. Such as:

  • Each element should have a closing tag (except for empty elements). An empty element is an image<img />,<br />And so on only have a slash ending tag, no content body and closing tag element);
  • Feature names must use lowercase letters;
  • All features must correspond to one feature value, and all feature values must be enclosed in double quotes.
  • Can no longer use obsolete elements;
  • If an element starts in another element, it should end in the same element;

XHTML version 1.0 is available in three versions:

  • Strict version: Deprecated (no longer supported) elements are prohibited; Designers must strictly follow the rules;
  • Transitional version: Allows the use of deprecated elements, such as:<center>and<font>Equally deprecated elements;
  • Frame version: This version allows you to split the browser window into several “frames,” each of which is embedded in a different HTML page;

In 2008, the HTML5 version was officially released, which combined with HTML4.01 related standards and innovations, in line with the requirements of modern networks. Almost all browsers now support HTML5.

HTML5’s advantages:

  • New elements and new features
  • Scalable Vector Graph (SVG)
  • Intelligent forms
  • You can use the Canvas element to implement canvas functionality
  • Multimedia support
  • geolocation
  • Data is stored
  • multithreading
  • Introducing the Semantic Web
  • The specification for element tags is lax, for example, closing all tags is not required, property names can be capitalized, property values can omit double quotes, and so on

You can use https://www.caniuse.com/ to see browser support for various elements, features, and so on.

Here’s what HTML5 supports by browser:

This section concludes the content of the evolution of HTML. Please kindly point out any mistakes or inadequacies.