Introduction to HTML - What is HTML?
Tags: html, webdev, beginners
Published: 2021-09-13 04:20:41

We will agree that at some point almost every developer have done web development right? You will also agree with me that when new beginners show interest in the coding and programming world they are advised to take on web development first. 

This is because it is seen as an easier stage to begin because there is nothing complicated and if you can grab everything right you will be in a good start. But what exactly do you need in order to get started with web development. 

But wait, the web development field is huge and you need to go in prepared which field you are trying to venture into, Now in this field you either become a front-end developer, back-end developer or a full-stack developer. 

Am pretty much sure you have heard this terms before and you might wonder what each of them exactly does. Well, the wait and wondering is over and for that reason I came in prepared with an article ready explaining each of these roles. Spare some time and read it [HERE](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-a-fullstack-developer/), to better understand which role best suits you.

Now that you have a better understanding of what really you want, lets begin by the one thing all the roles have in common **HTML**. So, what exactly does it entail, let's find out

### What is HTML? 
The acronym HTML stands for - Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is a text based based approach of describing how content contained within an HTML file structure. It tells the browser how to display text, images and other forms of media. 

In simpler words we can say HTML is the language in which almost all websites are written in, even the one you are reading this from now. 

HTML is like the skeleton of the body, because it gives it a website structure. Every site you visit is built using HTML, which handles the structure and the content of the site, and CSS is used to make it more visually appealing. 

Just like everything in existence today, everything has a day 1 meaning there is always a history behind it, what's the one for HTML. 

### History of HTML 
HTML is a very evolving markup language and has evolved with various versions updating. We have had five versions of HTML including the present one that you will be learning in this article onwards.  

HTML was first created by Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and others starting in 1989. The original HTML was a lot different than the HTML used today, it was far more limiting. You see back then the internet was not yet popularized, and few people were involved in web development. But for those that were involved in web development, they could not do much with HTML except get some simple text up on the web. 

> Quick fact: The first version of HTML consisted of only 22 tags.  

Fast forward to 1995 the HTML 2.0 was released, nothing mush from version 1 except some additional features. As time passed the web continued to be more popular hence more people began to learn HTML meaning there needed to be more abilities, more tags and more enhancements to webpages. For this reason the HTML 3.0 draft was introduced. 

This draft included new abilities and more powerful features for webpage developers to create their webpages. But surprisingly, the web browsers were slow in implementing these new abilities and opportunities, hence development of HTML 3.2. 

In 1994, an organization called the W3C was formed to standardize HTML, they got to work and created 3.2 by adding more tags and features and January 1997 HTML 3.2 became official. The evolution and advancement continued to the version we have today HTML 5.

### Getting Started with HTML 
As a beginner in HTML, you should first understand a couple of things. Pages you create with HTML must have a specific extension, HTML docs have a `.htm` or `.html` extension after the file name.

A HTML file is basically a text file, meaning you can create it using a simple text editor. As a beginner you will have a couple of text editors to choose from: 
- [Sublime Text 3](https://www.sublimetext.com/3) 
- [Visual Studio Code](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/) or the pre-installed **Notepad** in your PC plus you can always find more to use from the web.

### Conclusion 
This marks the beginning of you learning HTML from zero to Hero, We have seen what HTML is in the next article we will talk more on HTML Basics. 

Enjoyed this one, Read more: 

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