What is HTML

Photo of author

By Vijay Singh Khatri

HTML is one of the most widely used programming languages for developing web applications. The original purpose of creating HTML was to change the structure of documents, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, and others like that. This structure will help in the creation of scientific information between different researchers. Now, HTML has become more than that. In the last decade, we have seen the explosion of the internet, and a number of websites are now being clicked, all thanks to the internet.

But one more reason for the advancement of the internet was HTML and how easy it was to learn in the first place. Today, with this article, we are going to show you how HTML changed the word and what its benefits are. In addition to this, we are also showing you the different applications where we are using HTML to define the front page of the application.

HTML Introduction

We know that the internet has become a part of our lives that cannot be replaced. We need to transition from work to education right now to get things done. There used to be a time when the internet was just a text-based website, and from there, it changed by having more vivid photos and then videos to make the website look more interactive. while still making them aesthetically pleasing.

Behind the scenes of a website, you will find a number of designers and developers working to make the website look amazing both aesthetically and functionally. A website developer has to look for multiple areas of concern when creating a new website in today’s world. There are factors such as the design of the website, the search engine, and how the website is going to be indexed. On the other hand, most online users are connected to the internet via mobile. So one of the major concerns while creating a website is how to make it look better on mobile.

In that case, HTML and CSS are the two script languages that will help you achieve most of your demands. They are pretty powerful coding languages, so they are also helpful in other computer-related tasks apart from developing a website. Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS will be groundbreaking for you, and it can easily enhance your resume to land you an IT job.

History of HTML

Let’s take a moment and look at how HTML was built from the start and what journey it took that led this programming language to become an essential part of your web development cycle. Sir Tim Berners-Lee designed the very first form of HTML in the year 1991, but he didn’t make it an official release until 1995. When he finally published it, he named it HTML 2.0. Since then, there have been a number of updates to HTML, and finally a new version was released with all the added benefits from the other versions, and it was named HTML 4.01. This version of HTML was released in 1999 and brought some significant changes in how HTML programming works.

As you can see, HTML loves to evolve, and even after such a significant update, it was still getting new versions and minor tweaks here and there. Long before the revised standards of HTML and its specifications, each version made it possible for the developer to easily create web pages. As a result, the websites were quite efficient, as they used the minimum amount of internet bandwidth to display the user’s data.

The HTML 4.01 version is widely used, and it was a pretty successful version. But then came HTML 5.0, which was released in 2012 and is now used worldwide. HTML 5 is more of an extended version of HTML 4.01, and its first published data was back in 2012. If you are thinking about learning HTML in 2022, it is best to go with the latest version of HTML, which has all the benefits of previous versions. The newest version has eradicated the issues present in the earlier versions as well.

Benefits of using HTML

In this section of the article, we are going to discuss some of the benefits that you get when you start creating a website using HTML.

HTML is simple to comprehend

One of the most significant advantages of HTML is that it makes the language easier to manage and interpret. For those who are new to web development, HTML is the primary programming language that they will learn to start their development journey. It comes with easy tags, and there is nothing to worry about case sensitivity when using HTML.

As a result, another person can easily understand the code that was written by another developer and troubleshoot it if required. On the other hand, even if you forget about closing the tag, this web development language will lead to errors and will work as needed.

HTML is free to use

You don’t need to buy software or get a licence from a company in order to create a project using HTML. Also, there are no plugins you need to worry about when using HTML, as HTML doesn’t need any of them. As a result, HTML is considered quite a cost-effective programming language when it comes to building a website.

HTML can work with most the browsers

Before the internet had its big hit, and before that, it became an unsaid rule to use HTML for the development of web browsers. That’s why when you are developing a website in HTML, you don’t have to worry about it not being supported by some of the browsers. All that website needs to do is optimize the website as per the various browsers’ needs, and you are good to go..

HTML is SEO friendly

HTML is considered to be the programming language that is most friendly to the way search engines work. That’s why it becomes easier for search engine marketers to perform SEO techniques on these websites and make changes to the source code if they have to for the better reach of the website. On the other hand, an HTML website’s source code is much easier to understand, and thus, it reduces the parsing time along with the page load time of the website, which results in an improvement in performance.

HTML is easy to edit

When you are using HTML, you don’t need special software or an interface to make edits to the code of your website. Because HTML can be written up in a simple Notepad, a simple text editor is enough to create, edit, and even manage your HTML code.

HTML integrates with other languages

You can use HTML if your project requires you to use the help of other programming languages as well. Having another programming language will not create any issues. The HTML can work with Javascript, PHP, Node.js, CSS, and more. You can work with these programming languages and write their code between HTML and HTML. It will work without having to use any HTML plugins.

Instant Changes

With HTML, you get to see instant changes on the display when you make the same changes in the website’s source code. You can edit, save, and then load the HTML page, and it will show how the new changes look. Unlike any other programming language, you don’t have to get into running the whole code and then finding out the errors. For example, if you change the colour of the background from black to blue, it will show up instantly on the web page as soon as you load it once again after saving the new code.

Where do we use HTML?

Let’s see where we can use HTML in our daily lives; given below are some of the use cases of HTML.

Web Page Development

There is no doubt that the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word HTML is web development. Every page on the internet contains a set of HTML tags, which also come with hyperlinks that function as the connecting bridge between two web pages.

Web Navigation

One of the most important uses of HTML is web navigation, which is pretty revolutionary in its own way. The navigation takes place using the concept of hypertext. It is nothing but text, which refers to the other web page or text that is present on the internet.

Cutting Edge Feature

HTML5 has its own set of unique features and APIs, and this has resulted in the introduction of some of the latest trends in the website creation business. Like polyfill libraries, these are supported by the old browsers as well.

Responsive Images

At the very elementary level, we can use HTML to add images that are responsive in nature. With the use of the srcset attribute of the img element, which is a part of HTML, and then combining it with the picture elements, a developer will be able to control how the user is going to render the image.

Provides offline capabilities

Once the data is stored in the browser, the developer can start thinking of a strategy to make the application work when a user gets disconnected from the internet services. HTML5 comes with an application cache mechanism, and it will define how the browser is going to manage the web page when the internet connection is cut off in the middle of browsing.

Limitations of HTML

Like we have discussed the benefits of using HTML, we are also going to show you the limitations of HTML and what this programming cannot do. Given below are the significant limitations that you should know, and these are:

  • First, HTML cannot provide dynamic output alone because it has been a static language from the very beginning of its development.
  • When you are using HTML to create a massive structure for a website, it becomes pretty tough to understand the start and finish.
  • As we said, it will not show you any errors, and the page will be loaded, but this will result in mistakes being costly to developers.
  • When you use HTML, the creation of tables, lists, and forms takes a lot of time.
  • HTML can only be used to create static pages; if you have dynamic page requirements, it would be best to look into other programming languages.
  • Even if you are making a simple website, you will still end up writing a massive amount of code.
  • There are minimal security features that HTML offers.
  • Finally, writing extended code nearly doubles the project’s complexity.

Tips to make your HTML Code better

The following are some of the best tips and tricks that every HTML developer should be using; if you are just getting started with building websites with HTML, these tips will come in handy.

Close your HTML Tags

When you are writing the HTML tag, you need to place the corresponding closing tag at the end. This makes sure that your HTML code will be displayed properly on every browser. Also, it will prevent any strange issues or errors that might occur. This tip is especially important when you are using tags like div>, span>, table>, tr>, and td>.

On the other hand, some tags don’t have their corresponding closing tags. In that case, you can use their own tags, such as img.

Use Style Sheet whenever possible

With the use of styling sheets, you can make your coding a lot easier, and this will result in a reduction of “font” tags everywhere in your code. In addition to this, you will also get much finer control over the way your pages are going to look. You can also make changes to how they are going to look by simply making changes to the style sheet file.

Keep an HTML Validator handy

It is good to use an HTML validator when you are working on a project before you publish it on a website. These validators are designed to pick up any problems your code might have and highlight them for you. There could be a missing closing tag on your tables or you could be working with the tags, which might not perform well with specific web browsers.

Keep in mind that a web page that looks great in your browser doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same in others as well. Moreover, with the use of an HTML validator, you can learn more about using HTML properly and learn from your mistakes.

Use Comments Wisely

In order to make your HTML code clearer for you to read, it is better to add comments and let the reader know what is happening right there in the code. These are also known as the “snippets of code,” which will be ignored by the web browser when you load up the web page. They are like short notes and will make it easier for others to understand your code when you are not with them.

Use Relative URL

The relative type of URL is the best way to use URLs because they will work wherever the page and the images are located, provided they are present in the same place relative to each other.

Use Width & Height Matrix with HTML images

When you are inserting an image tag, it is a good idea to specify the height and width of your image. The advantage of doing that would be to show the browser what type of formatting needs to be done, and it would lay out the image in a much more efficient way than doing it randomly. This also means users with slow internet don’t have to wait for all the images to be loaded before they can start using your web page.

Use Tables for Tabular Data & CSS for Layout

Tables have always been used to lay out the content on a web page. However, this is not their primary method of use. They are meant to display tabular data like spreadsheets and others, with the use of the positioning capabilities of CSS, which only has the page content, and then use the separate style sheet, where you only have to provide the instructions on how to layout the content.

This is going to be a hard thing to learn at the start, but once you get a grip on it, it can make your HTML coding much easier and problem-free. CSS positioning is well worth learning as your websites with this technique become relatively faster to load. At the same time, they are easier to maintain as well.

Wrapping Up

HTML is a computer language that we use to create web pages and the front-end of some web applications. It is the language that browsers will use to display text, images, and other types of web content. Without a doubt, HTML is the most popular programming language on the internet. As a result, it is essential to learn not only for programmers but also for digital marketers. With HTML knowledge, you can make changes to a website’s source code to improve its performance on the internet. This article will answer any fundamental questions you may have about HTML.

If you ask us if learning HTML in 2022 is a good idea, then our answer would be yes. It is the best way to kickstart your learning of web pages and websites. We hope this article helped you answer your questions. If we missed out on something, feel free to add it in your comments to let us know. Until then, happy learning!

Leave a Comment