HTML

HTML is the language that is used to build the content of web pages. I've been quite careful in that statement, so it may not be quite clear, but here goes with more explanation.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and a snippet of HTML may look like this:

<h1> Welcome to our website </h1>
<p> Here's a little about our organisation.... </p>

<h1> is an HTML tag that makes your browser display a heading. <p> is another tag that makes the text appear as a paragraph. There are many more HTML tags, but the idea is no more tricky than that.

It used to be that HTML would be used to build entire websites, but times have changed and people now demand more dynamic and accessible websites. One outcome of this is that HTML is now used to build the content, and CSS is used to describe the layout. Also, languages like PHP and Content Management Systems, like Drupal are increasingly used to build websites, and although HTML is still important, it is now one among many technologies used in the construction of even simple looking web pages.

This page uses a few programs and languages to get it to display properly. Here's a few of them:

  • MySQL is the database where all the page content is stored
  • PHP is the script language that does all the hard work
  • Drupal is the content management system that we use
  • HTML describes the content
  • CSS describes the layout.
  • Javascript does some of the clever whizzy effects
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