What is HTML

What is HTML

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a language to specify the structure of documents for retrieval across the Internet using browser programs of the WorldWideWeb.

HTML is an application of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) which is the International Standard (ISO 8879) for text markup. The principle is that text markup concentrates on structure rather than appearance, making the files more reuseable and leaving the visual details to the end-user software (like the browser you're reading this with now). For the reasons why, see Eliot Kimber's comments.

Details of the specification are in the IETF Draft and the HTML Document Type Description. There is a FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions) document (also available by anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu), and a new book on HTML and the WorldWideWeb out shortly.