Basics of HTML

All web pages and websites on the Internet exist fundamentally as text files saved with the HTML extension. Web browsers read these text files, decided based on them (and based on HTML defaults) which formatting choices to use on a page, generate all content from the text file and link to all images, and ultimately display the page.

Of course it's impossible to talk to a web browser in natural language: saying in plain language to "make the margins one inch on all sides" is easy to understand for a human layout editor, but impossible for a computer. Which is why--as we touched on in the first chapter--standard protocols for online systems were a necessary condition for the growth of the Internet. In order for two computers to talk to one another--and in order to ensure that they're talking in the way that the user intends--it's necessary to speak a common language, which is essentially what HTML and other internet protocols are.

HTML (or "Hypertext Markup Language") is the most successful online formatting protocol yet devised, and should be the basis for any good website. It's also a fairly simple language to learn (as opposed to object-oriented languages like Java or C#, which require a much greater working knowledge of computers and a much greater willingness to spend time organizing a program.) HTML is essentially a formatting guideline rather than a true programming language, which explains some of its versatility and ease of use.

So in order to learn DIY coding (or to learn how to talk intelligently to your web designer), we first have to learn some key features of HTML.

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