Creating Web Sites Bible, Third Edition

Chapter 3. History and Development of the Internet and HTML

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Origins of the Internet

• Development and evolution of HTML

The purpose of this chapter is to give you some context for the work you will be doing with Internet technologies. The Internet can be pretty intimidating, and this chapter takes a look at its development, some of the people and organizations that were in on its development, as well as the different parts of the Internet.

The Internet is a big thing that took decades to develop, but it's not monolithic. We will be looking at the origins of the Internet from the first tentative steps to the worldwide phenomenon it has become. We will look at why it is so difficult to understand, and explain it so that it makes better sense why certain things are the way they are.

We will be looking at the origins of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) because it is the language of the Web and pretty much has been since the beginning of hypertext. But it wasn't born full-blown either. We owe a great deal to people who toiled long stubborn hours in obscurity, such as Dave Raggert, who has inspired us by working to make Web pages possible through his extensive rewrite of HTML.

Eric Bina, a man with burning vision, leads the browser revolution with Mosaic and has demonstrated how it can serve the business and customer base (B2B and B2C).

Origins of the Internet

One of the first ideas to get out of your mind (if it is there) is that the Internet is a monolithic creation that came ...