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Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

On the World Wide Web, formatting and links are coded into documents with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Initially developed by programmers at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, HTML consists of a series of coding "tags" that authors insert into their text.

When a Web browser like Netscape or Mosaic encounters these hidden tags, it converts the coding into the appropriate format onscreen (boldface or italic, for example); retrieves the appropriate graphic from the computer server and displays it onscreen; or reads a Universal Resource Link (URL), which tells the browser to connect instantaneously to another Web page on another specific server somewhere on the Internet.

Since its initial development six years ago at CERN, HTML has gone through several revisions. It continues to be a bone of contention among commercial interests who want their formatting codes to become the industry standard.

An easy way to "learn" HTML--which, being a series of formatting codes, is easier to master than bona fide computer languages--is to read the free how-to guides at certain sites around the Web. The Netscape home page is a good place to start.

John Whalen