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Hello World: Lesson 1 - HTML code
The Hello World page is your introduction to the world of HTML programming.
HTML is surprisingly easy, requires only the most basic tools to get started,
and allows you to create Web pages that can be read by anyone anywhere
in the world with access to a browser. Over the following lessons, you'll
learn how to design a site by following the instructions included in these
pages - beginning with a basic text Hello World Web page.
What is HTML?
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the coding language used to create
documents on the World Wide Web. Rather than being a full (and very complex)
programming languange, HTML employs tags (indicated by <> marks, eg. <IMG>)
to surround text codes: these tags are interpreted by a browser such as
Mosaic, Navigator or Internet Explorer to control how the page appears.
More importantly, HTML allows you to create documents that link to other
documents on the Web - hence hypertext.
HTML is defined by the World Wide Web Consortium that sets certain standards
governing how HTML can be viewed by any browser on any computer in the
world. HTML 2.0 (the basics of which you will learn from this series of
tutorials) is an older standard: consequently, it is less sophisticated
than versions 3.2 and 4.0 but is capable of being interpreted by older
browsers.
Code: First Encounters
Use the View Source menu option to view the HTML code for this page.
There are four main tags, grouped in pairs:
<HTML> and the final tag </HTML> are the fundamental marks
surrounding every word on your page and indicating to the browser the
language used to markup the page.
<HEAD> </HEAD> Contains information about your page, including
meta- descriptions of your page.
<TITLE></TITLE> Look in the blue bar at the top of your browser.
This is where you'll find the title of your page, usually a short description
of the page that is used by search engines to find information on the
World Wide Web.
<BODY></BODY> The body tags contain the main bulk of your
content, that which appears in the window of your browser.
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