HTML

The publishing language used by the World Wide Web is HTML (from HyperText Markup Language).

HTML gives authors the means to:

• Publish online documents with headings, text, tables, lists, photos, etc.
• Retrieve online information via hypertext links, at the click of a button.
• Design forms for conducting transactions with remote services, for use in searching for information, making reservations, ordering products, etc.
• Include spread-sheets, video clips, sound clips, and other applications directly in their documents.

HTML was originally developed by Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN and popularized by the Mosaic browser developed at NCSA. During the 1990s HTML has been extended in a number of ways. We are currently working at HTML 4.01, which is a subversion of HTML 4. 

In addition to the text, multimedia, and hyperlink features of the previous versions of HTML, HTML 4 supports more multimedia options, scripting languages, style sheets, better printing facilities, and documents that are more accessible to users with disabilities. HTML 4 also takes great strides towards the internationalization of documents, with the goal of making the Web truly World Wide.

HTML 4 is an SGML application conforming to International Standard ISO 8879 -- Standard Generalized Markup Language.