Skip to Content
Beginning Programming ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE FOR DUMMIES®
book

Beginning Programming ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE FOR DUMMIES®

by Wallace Wang
June 2008
Beginner
695 pages
14h 9m
English
For Dummies
Content preview from Beginning Programming ALL-IN-ONE DESK REFERENCE FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter V.1. HyperText Markup Language

The language used to create every Web page in the world is HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Although you can create Web pages with specialized Web page editing programs, such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage, it's still nice to know how HTML works so you can modify Web pages manually or create unique effects that may be difficult or impossible to accomplish with a Web page editing program.

Much like a traditional programming language relies on keywords, HTML also relies on keywords, or tags, that follow a rigidly defined syntax. Instead of creating a working program like a traditional programming language, HTML creates Web pages that browsers can view.

In a traditional programming language, an error or bug can keep the entire program from running or make it calculate incorrectly. In HTML, an error can keep a Web page from appearing or just make the Web page display incorrectly. If you're interested in understanding the heart of Web page designing, you need to understand the basics of using HTML.

The Structure of an HTML Document

The basic HTML tab defines the entire HTML document like this:

<html>
</html>

Anything between the <html> and </html> tags will appear on the Web page.

Warning

The last tag uses a slash (/) to identify the end of the tag.

Generally, HTML tags work in pairs — the first tag defines something, and the second tag (the one beginning with a slash) marks the end of that definition. If you omit one of the <html> or </html> ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd Edition

Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd Edition

Martin Kleppmann, Chris Riccomini

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780470108543Purchase book