HTML Reference - Poised Solutions

HTML Reference and Tutorial

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language) derived language to markup documents to be read in a web browser. HTML was created by Tim Berners Lee whilst he was working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland and France, CERN is actually an international organization also known as (The European Laboratory for Particle Physics). The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) maintains the DTDs and Schemas for both HTML and XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language), the language is formally defined by the W3C, though it is generally implemented by the various web browser developers.

HTML has evolved now to nearly a version 5 release, and has also branched into XHTML which is derived from XML another meta style language much like SGML, though slightly simplified.

HTML is made up of tags generally an opening and closing tag contains text that will be displayed. The tags therefore give context to the text, and in computing circles we describe data plus context as giving information ( data + context = information ). For example: the p tag (paragraph tag) when opened and closed around text, denotes that the text contained within is a paragraph. Some tags, such as the line break tag (br) don't have a closing tag and in HTML it is written as an opening tag and just left, in XHTML though a slash is prepended just before the tag is closed. Attributes are contained within an opening tag and have the general format of assignment with the attribute name, an equals sign and then a value enclosed in double quotes.

An HTML page is generally expressed between an opening html tag and a closing html tag, a set of head tags is used to contain meta information that is not directly shown on a page, though affect what is shown, the title tag is a slight anomaly but that is in fact display by browser internals and not actually part of a page. The body tags enclose the page, so a general format is html open, head open, head close, body open, body close, html close.

HTML Reference Sections

The HTML Reference site has been split into a number of sections, the first section is a discussion on the HTML DOCTYPE, the DOCTYPE generally sets a mode in a browser so it knows how to render the proceeding HTML code. HTML Tags concentrates on the main elements of HTML, the actual markup. HTML Tag Attributes can be found in the HTML Tags section, but they deserve a separate section as it is often useful to look at HTML Tag Attributes directly. The HTML Coding Style section introduces a style of HTML coding, that Poised Solutions has developed over the years, and is a fairly flexible and efficient way of laying out HTML code. The HTML Validation section deals with validation issues, and various tools to check validation, there is also a discussion on the virtues of validation and potential pitfalls of over zealous validation requirements. The HTML Character Sets section deals with the various characters special characters that can be displayed in HTML documents. The HTML Tips section is a collection of HTML Tips and Tricks that can prove useful in creating effective HTML documents for the web.

HTML Reference Sections

HTML DOCTYPE: Both HTML and XHTML documents should be supplied with a preceding DOCTYPE (document type declaration). The DOCTYPE declares which DTD (Document Type Definition) applies to the document, this allows the browser to select the mode that it will render the document in. Most browsers have a default mode for render, but it could vary from browser to browser and so the use of DOCTYPE on each webpage is highly recommended. There are a number of different DOCTYPEs generally for each HTML and XHTML release, framesets, and what is termed transitional.
HTML Tags: Tags form the building blocks of HTML (SGML), XHTML and XML based documents. Their purpose is to enclose some data inside a tag or between an opening and closing. When this is done the data now has context and is transformed into information. This information allows a browser or document reader to gain a degree of semantical understanding of the document. This understanding is used to render the document, and acts as a way in which the look and feel can be applied to a document. HTML Tags section looks at Tags available in both HTML and XHTML, separated into their display types, with DTD versions and browser compatibility shown.
HTML Tag Attributes: HTML Tag Attributes examines each attribute that can be associated with a tag, the values they can contain and which tags they are associated with.
HTML Coding Style: HTML is a fairly simple language to code, but there are some nuances to code layout that can be used to make it simpler to edit, maintain and check HTML code. The HTML coding style section looks at the coding guidelines that Poised Solutions uses when creating HTML markup code.
HTML Validation: HTML validation is discussed in this section. Validation is a interesting subject in regards to HTML, as one group, the W3C, creates the specification and the DTD, and other groups, known as browser implementors, implement the specification in their browsers, either by extending or omitting parts of the W3C specification.
HTML Character Sets: The use of extended characters is quite common in HTML documents, a few of the extra character sets that can be introduced into an HTML documents via the &#xxx method can be found here.
HTML Tips: A collection of HTML Tips an Tricks can be found here, ways to layout HTML and common problems overcome.

HTML Reference Pages

About HTML Reference: The about section explains the reasons for Poised Solutions IT Practice creating this HTML Reference website.
HTML History: The history of HTML spans a couple of decades from its initial conception in 1988, HyperText heralds from the 1940s. A brief outline of HTML history can be found here.
HTML Resources: Poised solutions has compiled a list of links to various useful HTML resources. HTML is well represented on the World Wide Web, being the base language that the web is constructed from.
Contact Poised Solutions: Looking for a web developer, web designer or HTML developer to hire, contact Poised Solutions to discuss project requirements.