Why HTML is crucial for modern web development

HTML plays an important role in web development as it provides the structure & layout of web pages, including elements such as headings, paragraphs, images, & links.

It also enables additional functionality like forms and buttons. Without HTML, it is highly impossible to create interactive web pages.

What is HTML

HTML is a markup language used to create the structure and layout of web pages. It uses a set of tags and elements like <p> and <h1> to define the content and its formatting, creating a readable structure for web browsers to display. It forms the backbone of any website and is the standard used for creating web pages.

Origin of HTML

HTML was first developed by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist while working at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland in the late 1980s. Berners-Lee is considered to be the inventor of the World Wide Web, and he created HTML as a way to organize and share scientific research online. 

The first version of HTML, HTML 1.0, was proposed in 1991 and later became an international standard in 1993. Since then, HTML has undergone several revisions and updates, with the latest standard being HTML5, which was first released in 2014.

Versions of HTML

HTML 1.0

HTML 1.0 had a very basic set of features, which were primarily focused on creating structured documents with headings, paragraphs, lists, and simple links. The elements available in this version were very limited and not many formatting options were available. Here is the list of elements that are available in HTML 1.0

• <p> for paragraphs
• <h1> to <h6> for headings
• <a> for links
• <ul> for unordered lists and <ol> for ordered lists
• <li> For list items
• <img> to include images
• <pre> for preformatted text
• <address> for address
• <blockquote> For block quotations 
• <hr> for horizontal lines

HTML 2.0

HTML 2.0 introduced many new features and capabilities that expanded the capabilities of the language, making it possible to create more interactive and dynamic web pages.

However, it did not provide much of styles and formatting options, so Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were introduced in the next version. Here is the list of elements that are available in HTML 2.0

• <table> for creating tables
• <tr> for creating table rows
• <td> for creating table cells
• <th> for creating table headers
• <form> for creating forms
• <input> for creating form controls
• <textarea> for creating multi-line text fields
• <select> for creating drop-down lists
• <option> for creating options within <select>
• <label> for creating labels for form controls
• <fieldset> for grouping form controls
• <legend> for providing a caption for a <fieldset>
• <frame> for creating a frames
• <frameset> 
• <noframes> 

HTML 3.2

HTML 3.2 was an early attempt to provide more advanced features for web developers and addresses some of the limitations of previous versions. However, it was not widely adopted due to its complexity and lack of browser support. Some of the new tags and attributes introduced in HTML 3.2 include:

• <caption> for creating captions for tables
• <colgroup> and <col> for creating table column groups and individual columns
• <style> for defining style sheets 
• <!DOCTYPE> Declaration that defined the type of HTML used in the page
• Attributes like "align", "valign", "char", "charoff" etc, can be used to control the alignment and spacing of table cells
• <div> and <span> for creating the generic layout and styling container

HTML 4.01

HTML 4.01 was widely adopted by web developers and it became a standard for a period of time. However, it's largely replaced by HTML5, which offers more enhanced features, improved accessibility, and better support for multimedia. Here is a list of some new tags introduced in HTML 4.01:

• <abbr> for abbreviations
• <acronym> for acronym
• <address> for contact information
• <blockquote> For the long quotation
• <cite> for the title of a work
• <code> for a code sample
• <dfn> For defining the term
• <div> and <span> for creating the generic layout and styling container
• <kbd> for text to be entered by the user
• <pre> for preformatted text
• <q> For short quotation
• <samp> for sample output
• <var> for a variable or program argument

XHTML

XHTML was introduced to make the code more consistent and well-formed and also to make it more compatible with other markup languages like XML. However, it was not as widely adopted as previous versions of HTML and it's largely replaced by HTML5 now. Here is a list of some of the new tags introduced in XHTML:

• <br /> to replace <br>
• <hr /> to replace <hr>
• <img /> to replace <img>
• <link /> to replace <link>
• <meta /> to replace <meta>
• <input /> to replace <input>

HTML5

HTML5 is the latest version of HTML which introduced many new tags and attributes, such as multimedia elements, semantic tags, new form controls, offline storage, and improved accessibility, to make it easier to create rich, interactive web pages and improve the semantics of webpages. 

Here is a list of some of the new tags that were introduced in HTML5:

• <article>  - describes a self-contained composition in a document
• <aside>  - defines content aside from the main content
• <audio> - embeds audio files
• <canvas> - used for rendering graphics, via scripting
• <datalist> - provides an "autocomplete" feature for input fields
• <details> - provides a disclosure widget from which the user can obtain additional information
• <figcaption> - describes a caption for a <figure> element
• <figure> - used to group an illustration, image, and other flow content
• <footer> - defines a container for the footer of a document or a section
• <header> - defines a container for the header of a document or a section
• <mark> - used to highlight a text
• <nav> - defines a section for navigation links
• <output> - used for output fields in a form
• <progress> - represents the progress of a task
• <section> - defines a section in a document
• <time> - defines a human-readable date/time
• <video> - embeds video files
• <bdi> - isolates a span of text for bidirectional text formatting
• <data> - links a given content with a machine-readable translation
• <keygen> - provides a secure way to authenticate users
• <main> - defines the main content of a document

What is a web document?

A web document is a file that can be accessed by a web browser over a network such as the Internet. It can be of different types like HTML, XML, PDF, images, and others, which contain information that can be displayed on the user's device in the form of web pages. Please check here to know the perfect document structure and the other rule set of HTML.

Role of HTML CSS and JS in website development

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) provides the structure and content of a website, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) provides the visual design and layout of the website, and JavaScript adds interactivity and dynamic functionality to the website. 

Together, these three languages are used to create and develop modern websites

Responsibilities of  HTML

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is used to create the structure and content of a webpage. It uses a set of tags and attributes to define the different elements on a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, images, links, and more.

To become an expert in HTML, refer few of our blogs that are written with standard html

here.

Responsibilities of CSS

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a styling language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language, such as HTML. It is used to control the layout, color, and overall look and feel of a web page. 

To become an expert in css, refer few of our blogs that are written with standard html

here.

Responsibilities of JS

JavaScript (JS) is a programming language that is primarily used to create interactive and dynamic features on a web page. JS is such an amazing language where we can generate html and css, and modify html and css, and that compatibility makes a website interactive. JS has some libraries by the name jQuery, reactjs, and many more which makes the developer's life easier for developing a quality website.

To become an expert in JS, refer few of our blogs that are written with standard html

here.

Conclusion

I hope this article full fills your expectations, please save this article for future reference as it covers the origin and key principles of HTML. Feel free to share the article and we always welcome you in the comments, Happy learning 🤝.