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HTML IS THE BACKBONE OF THE INTERNET,
without it there would be no Internet as we know it today. HTML is
what puts everything together, from the layout to the insertion of graphics and text.
You can put a web page together without even seeing the HTML, but to become an expert
in web page development a person will need to know what is happening in the background.
This article will look at my personal experience with HTML and how it got me to the
place I am today.
I was working part time at a computer store in my final year at high school, and
I noticed this guy working with all this strange text on his monitor. Being the curious
person I am, I had to watch him and figure out what this stuff was all about. I watched
him for about 20 minutes and was fascinated with this wonderful thing he called HTML.
He would switch from a text editor to the web browser and ever time something would
be different. It was almost like watching an inventor putting things together. With
a few keystrokes, everything changed on the screen. New images popped up and things
became bold and italicized everywhere.
I was bored with working at the store, so I asked to be taught HTML by the web master
and that went really well. I learned the basics to get started, and before long I
was creating my own masterpieces (well I thought they were anyway!). I remember fooling
around with the colours of everything. I also remember that the little animated images
were very fun and exciting. Of course, now I won't go near the awful things, if my
life depends on it. I can remember taking apart sites and figuring out how they work
from the code up. It was fascinating that a single finalized page needed to have
about four pages of HTML.
When I came onto the scene of web design, I remember some of the new features being
implemented. Some of these features included: tables, frames, Java script and Shockwave.
This was very exciting time to be introduced to the finer workings of the Internet.
In the old days a person was more likely to be using Netscape, so a person would
just design their site knowing that there would only be one look. Unfortunately,
when Microsoft came onto the scene that changed rapidly.
The first browsers, Viola and Midas, were released in January 1993 for the UNIX System.
At the same time, a Macintosh browser was released as an ALPHA - version. WWW, a
line mode browser, was available for the public on the15th of January, 1992, via
telnet. The first popular browser was NCSA Mosaic. It supported only HTML 1.0. It
was released for all common platforms in September, 1993. When Marc Andreessen, the
mastermind of Mosaic, founded his own company, Mosaic Communications Corporation
(now called Netscape), and released a browser, the Netscape Navigator 1.0, he soon
controlled 70% of the browser market. Microsoft saw this gigantic success and soon
released its own browser, the MS Internet Explorer, for free. Currently, there is
version 4.6 (Communicator) of Netscape Navigator and version 5 of the Microsoft Internet
Explorer.
I get asked all the time why I chose to be a web designer. I guess it comes down
to the fact that it's always changing. New features such as Cascading Style Sheets
and DHTML make designing a web page into an adventure. You can always be modifying
pages, adding new information, or adding new and special additions such as Shockwave
or Java script. I find it almost relaxing to produce a site by hand. I have made
sites with Dreamweaver and Go-Live, but I still find it exciting working with HTML.
HTML is the support structure of the World Wide Web. Without HTML, there would be
no Internet as we know it today. HTML is the glue of the World Wide Web; it holds
everything together from the text to the fancy features we find today. Some programs
will allow anyone to create a whole site without seeing HTML, but to become an expert
in web page development, a person will need to know what's happening behind the scenes.
Chris Calon was born
in Calgary in 1978. He has moved around for most of his life. Chris has been able
to experience living in some remote places such as Yellowknife, Dawson City, and
Whitehorse. He has recently moved down to Calgary to take part in the Multimedia
program at SAIT. He hopes to one day to be part of a successful company dedicated
to enhancing the Internet.
Source list
http://members.magnet.at/dmayr/history.htm - David Mayr.1999
http://www.netscape.com - Netscape Logo
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