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HTML History

HTML’s first version didn’t have the version number. HTML was just called as HTML. Back in 1989 to1995 HTML was used to put up some of the simple WebPages. HTML was standardized in the year 1995 by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and numbered it as “HTML 2.0”.

W3C (World Wide Web consortium) presented the next version called “HTML 3.2” in 1997, in 1998 “HTML 4.0” and in 1999 “HTML 4.01” was released. Later on W3C made an announcement that, it would not be developing new versions of HTML and it would focus on extensible XHTML or HTML. W3C recommended web designers to use HTML 4.01 for their (web designers) HTML documents.

At this point of time, development of HTML split off. W3C drew its attention on XHTML 1.0 and from 2000 onwards basics of XHTML was recommended. As web designers weren’t interested to move to rigid parts of XHTML. In 2004, WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) began to develop the new version of HTML called HTML 5 which was not as rigid as XHTML. WHATWG are hopeful that their HTML 5 version will be eventually accepted as a W3C recommendation.

Deciding which version of HTML

While writing a Webpage, the first and foremost decision is whether to write in XHTML or HTML. If a webpage designer is using an editor like dreamweaver the choice of HTML is determined by the doctype chosen. If an XHTML doctype is chosen, then the page will be written XHTML or if an HTML doctype is chosen, then the page will be written in HTML.

Now XHTML is HTML 4.0 which has been rewritten as XML application. If XHTML is written, the attributes will be quoted, tags will be closed and it could be edited in XML editor. Than XHTML, HTML is lot looser because it can leave quotes of attributes like leave tags <p> without closing </p>tag and so on.

Why HTML is used

HTML occupies lesser space, where the download speed will be higher
Response of the older browsers will be more effective to HTML than to a XHTML.
Learning HTML is an easy process because it forgives, like if the tags in HTML are left off the codes still work.

Why XHTML is used

XTML is lot clearer at the beginning and at the end by which events and styles can be added in more easily. Because XHTML is XM, it integrates well into other programming languages. Some of the browsers available respond reliably to XHTML, so that the pages are displayed consistently.

Once decided on XHTML or HTML- which of these versions should be used

HTML
In this there are 3 versions still in regular use around the net. They are:
HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0 and HTML 4.01.

XHTML
In this there are 2 versions in current use, they are:
XHTML 1.0 and XHTML 2.0.

Once decided on a version

Ensure to use a doctype. Using a doctype is one more additional line in HTML documents. By using doctype, it ensures the pages are displayed the way they are intended to be displayed

Usenet is a public discussion system which was developed to facilitate communication on the World Wide Web (WWW). Users from all over the world take part in the discussions to express their views on variety of topics and issues. Conceived by the students of the Duke University Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979, the Usenet looks like the bulletin boards and web forums. However the concept of Usenet is entirely different from these two even if the ultimate objective is same, i.e. to take part in online discussions or to broadcast certain information. The main difference between the Usenet and the Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) is that like the BBS the Usenet is not based on a central server and there is no central system owner, rather it is distributed among a large conglomeration of servers which change continuously and store and forward the Usenet messages to each other. Generally these servers operate in a loosely formed variable mesh topology.

Users of the Usenet generally read and post the messages on the local server operated by their ISP, University or by their employer. These messages are then exchanged among other servers online so that the information is available globally. The messages which the users read from or post to the Usenet are known as articles, posts, discussions or more popularly as news which are organized into different categories known as newsgroups. All the discussions are threaded with the help of news reader software. In order to use the Usenet the individuals have to subscribe themselves. Once they are logged into the user network (Usenet) the news client software application keeps track of all the activities of the users, activities like which articles they have read, the replies they have made or any new discussion initiated by them.

Generally, most of the discussions in a newsgroup are replies of some on going topics, i.e. one article is the reply of the other article. The set of articles which can be traced to one single no reply article is considered as a separate thread. Modern newsreaders display the discussions in the form of threads and sub-threads. This is very useful in case the users want to identify and follow a particular discussion in a high volume newsgroup.

Whenever a user starts a new discussion or replies to a post in a newsgroup it is available only for the users of that news server initially and then the different Usenet servers talk to each other periodically as per their configuration to copy the postings among each other and make them accessible on every network.

Usenet has its own cultural importance on the internet. It has given birth to many categories and sub-cultures and has offered millions of users an opportunity to express themselves, share their views on critical topics, help each other by giving suggestions and make friends. The messages or articles in a Usenet are transmitted in the same way the e-mails are sent. The only difference between the two is that the e-mails are restricted to their recipients but the Usenet users can access any information anytime.

Since its birth, the World Wide Web has been through various ups and downs, changes, modifications and upgrades but for the first time it happened that the whole ideology of the WWW has been changed. Recently the web has been through an impact full revolution, the revolution known as The Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is basically an idea to transform the way we use the internet. It is aimed at providing freedom to the user; freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the most noticeable, the freedom to expand his/her social domain. Web 2.0 is targeted to build a society where every internet user can be a journalist, a musician, a painter, animator or anything else. With Web 2.0 you have complete freedom to portray yourself the way you want online. It lets you to give birth to the online communities, social networking web sites, wikis, blogs and much more. You can actually socialize on web and spend a quality time with your friends. The Web 2.0 has the power of the latest cutting edge technology which helps to create never seen before web tools, animations, graphics, photos, audio, video and much more. It gives you the opportunity to enhance the way to communicate with each other and brings all the elements of the world closer to each other.

The way internet users conveys message to each other has been completely changed by the Web 2.0. It has given a highly interactive platform which can be used to transform the web into an online café where people can talk, share and enjoy. Old style internet which consists of boring web pages and which provided limited amount of options to its users is now an obsolete term. The modern web is very young and full of energy, enthusiasm and aspirations.

Web 2.0 does not emphasize on the emergence of the new technologies. Rather it changed the way the web developers make use of different technologies. It has carved out a whole new mould in order to give the internet a new and exciting shape. According to Tim O’Reilly,” Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.” Although the Web 2.0 is perceived differently by different people and has been defined in more than one way, at its core it implies the new internet equipped with interconnectivity and interactive web content. It allows the internet users to do more than just simply retrieving the information via web sites. It offers them highly interactive web pages, e-business solutions, online shopping and social networking sites offering download and upload of the multimedia content. This means that the users not only publish their data on the web but they also have complete control over it. They can now create their own blogs, threads and web pages within seconds using the user friendly wizards available online. But the game is not over yet, the Web 2.0 still have lots of surprises which the users will explore down the line.

Webcasting refers to the process of broadcasting the web content to the internet users regularly. For this purpose the Channel Definition Files, popularly known as CDF are used. These files are very important while creating the Active Desktop components. The type of content, its update interval and the amount of content to be uploaded and downloaded is specified in the CDF file.

Channel designing is a very important task. A properly designed channel is easy to manage, user friendly and have lots of exciting features.

Below are some tips and guidelines which can be followed in order to create a captivating online channel:

• If the channel contains large amount of content then it must be managed in a hierarchy and the Top Level should be very attractive yet simple. There should not be too much content at the top level. It should only contain the logo and main information about the channel.
• Keep the navigation between different levels as simple as possible because if it is complicated and uneven then the user will get confused and will not be able to find out particular information.
• In order to make the channel look more attractive you can make use of Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language (DHTML) tools.
• One of the most important features which should be included while designing the channels is offline browsing. There may be chances when the user tries to browse the web page offline. During this phase many Java applets and Active X controls don’t work properly, especially the dynamically loaded images. Therefore the channel must be tested completely for offline browsing.
• Instead of stuffing a single page with loads of information provide the content in small chunks distributed over different pages. There are two main reasons behind this. First is that while surfing the internet the users browse one page after another very quickly and do not take interest in reading those web pages which are poorly designed and contains lots of textual information. Secondly, if the channel contains lots of information it will take more time to get loaded in the web browser. Therefore the channels should be as slim as possible so that they can be loaded with a snap otherwise the user will not wait for it and switch over to some another channel.
• In order to ensure scalability, uniformity and style it is recommended to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) while designing the webcast channels.
• To make channels arrest the viewer’s attention at the first glance it should be rich in multimedia. Apart from the textual data pictures, animations, videos, sound effects etc. should be used. Again it should be noted that the multimedia elements should not be used too frequently as it will make the web page heavier to load. The channel developer should intellectually balance the technical qualities and the visual quality of the channels.

Once the channel is properly designed it can be made more interactive and real time component with the help of CDF files. CDF files trigger the regular updates. The developer can also use the CDF files to log the hits to his channel.

Network Attached Storage, popularly known, as NAS is a file storage technology, which is used to store and manage large amount of data in a network, which can be retrieved by the clients whenever needed. It is being used in a large number of organizations now a days because of its awesome benefits.

By implementing NAS an organization can achieve the following:

• Reduced IT Staff Cost: As a NAS server can be accessed via TCP/IP network in graphical user interface (GUI) mode it does no require too many IT professionals for its management and configuration. In this way the IT staff cost is reduced to a great extent. The NAS server can be easily managed with the help of a web browser. The NAS filer is also preconfigured to facilitate specific file serving needs and thus its administration is simplified and there is reduction in the chances of operational errors too.
• Scalable without any Downtime: Business is dynamic in nature and the IT technologies are being designed in a way that they support the expansion or reduction in the current IT infrastructure easily without affecting its operational capability. NAS is also fully scalable. You can install a new filer in just 15 minutes without shutting down the whole NAS server. Advanced NAS servers also support some additional features like storage on-the-fly which eliminated the need for adding another node in the network. The users can simply access the any authorized data whenever they want. Thus NAS is also considered as a real time application.
• Specialized NAS Server: NAS servers are different from the general purpose servers. They have high computing speed and data read/write capabilities and the latency period is very less. NAS servers are optimized to handle a large number of requests simultaneously. They manage a massive amount of data with ease.
• Multi-OS Connectivity and Data-Sharing: One of the exciting advantages of Network Attached Storage is that it supports multiple operating systems and networks. NAS servers support a variety of protocols and file systems such as NFS of UNIX and CIFS of Microsoft Windows. This ensures that you can retrieve and share data on a cross-functional platform.
• Easy and Transparent Backup: The backup of the NAS filer can be taken without affecting the performance of the general purpose application servers.
• The existing network infrastructure can also be leveraged with the help of NAS. You can make better use of the current network and administration skills. Network attached Storage can be deployed anywhere in the network whenever needed without affecting the existing IT infrastructure. It can be easily amalgamated with the large and sophisticated enterprise management tools such as Microsoft Management Console (MMC), Tivoli, HP Openview etc. NAS also supports remote storage and centralized data management. You can store your data in a NAS server placed at a remote location and can manage it over the TCP/IP network from anywhere, even sitting at your home. No doubt, after implementing NAS anyone can reap higher performance from his IT infrastructure.

World Wide Web Consortium, popularly known as W3C is an international organization which formulates policies and lays down the standards for World Wide Web (WWW or W3). W3C is in fact a consortium where all its members work together towards the development of WWW standards.

Why W3C was formed?

W3C was formed by Tim Berners-Lee in October 1994. It was created to develop universal standards for developing HTML documents. Before the evolution of the consortium, every vendor was providing a different version of HTML documents. This lead to web page incompatibilities and the purpose of Internet (that everybody should be connected) was getting into somber. Thus, there was an immediate need to standardize the process of web site creation. Now a days W3C develops interoperable technologies, specifications, guidelines, software and tools with an aim to enhance and utilize the web in a best manner.

W3C Members:

W3C is an international organization having a large number of members who are dedicated to manage and design the specifications for web. These efforts are made in order to ensure that people form different backgrounds and cultures can access the utilize the web easily. W3C is hosted by three universities:

1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.
2) The French National Research Institute, Europe
3) Keio University, Japan

There is no individual or a single organization or a group of organizations which own W3C. Every member of the consortium holds equally important position. Some of the well known members of this consortium are IBM, Microsoft, America On Line (AOL), Apple, Adobe, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems and much more which includes a large number of software vendors, content providers, telecommunications companies, corporate users, networking companies, international carriers like AT&T, academic institutions, research laboratories, government bodies, electronics and hardware companies etc. In total, there are 425 members of W3C till date (June 2008).

Goals of World Wide Web Consortium or W3C:

As mentioned above, the W3C is continuously engaged in the development of standards for the web. These standards are developed keeping in mind certain long term objectives. Following are the goals which form the basis of the standards developed by W3C:

1) Web for Everyone: W3C believes in non-discrimination and aims at giving equal opportunities to all the human beings irrespective of their caste, sex, religion, and their social and ethnic values. Thus, this consortium lays down some standards which make the web pages easily accessible to all the people.
2) Web on Everything: With the growth of telecom sector and communications technology now apart from the PC, there are a large number of devices which can support internet surfing. W3C develops standards and protocols to support the internet on these kinds of devices such as PDAs, Smart phones, Tablets etc.
3) Knowledge Base: W3C aims at enhancing the web content and its processing via databases and scripts so that people can use the internet as a useful knowledge source.
4) Trust and Confidence: W3C also lays down the standards for internet security and privacy so that people can confidently involve into activities like e-commerce.

Apart from creating the new ones, W3C also updates its existing standards whenever required and it is recommended that the web developers conform to these standards while creating HTML documents.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was developed in the year 1991. This language is used to write scripts to construct the Web pages. Though, today we have a lot of tools that are used for scripting to help in web designing the history of HTML goes back to 1991 when this was the only language for scripting to develop a Web page. The language could also be used to share documents online. This idea of sharing documents and pages was proposed by Tim Berners Lee. He is still eulogized for introducing HTML tags, which were responsible for initiating the Internet ride, ultimately helping in better communication. Initially, 22 elements were introduced in HTML, out of which 9 elements have been frozen due to upgradation. Now, we have the fourth version of HTML, which is referred to as HTML Four. The initial version of HTML Four consists of 13 elements.

HTML has its origin from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). SGML is a little heavy on the technical side, but it’s good to know it because it initiated the whole project of W3-World Wide Web. An SGML is usually described as a Meta language, which gives you the liberty to make use of a range of markup languages. Initially, when HTML originated, SGML tagging was used in the basic HTML, however, in the advanced stages, SGML tagging was not given any preference, as HTML could never be an appropriate SGML document.

If you wish to learn the HTML scripting, it can be learned easily and is very interesting. Continuing with the history, Lee HTML was withdrawn and a new HTML was created by the IETF. This was described as the HTML working group, which brought about a formation of HTML 2.0 version. For a difference 2.0 is the version number, which is given to this. But this 2.0 is not up to the mark for the development of a web environment, which is suitable to everyone and gives a better result. This addition requires some changes. Earlier in this 2.0 version changes were done under the guidance of IETF. In 2000 a version was released by W3C that is well known, as it possess those international standards the same as version 4.0. Presently HTML 5.0 is in demand in the market. HTML has come a long way since 1991 and it has launched many versions in the past years and from every version users have received something new to exhibit. When HTML came up with its final version, users found this version more easily applicable as compared to any other programming language, which is used for web designing.

Yesterday while surfing the net, an unusual observation made me wonder a few things. I marveled at how easily communication can be established now and our data transferred. What used to take something like ages in the past is now done in minutes. With technology growing rapidly, people seem to have been able to make things simpler for everyone to grasp. Definitely getting information, being able to communicate with a pal somewhere and also applying for a job has become easier thanks to the net. But have you ever wondered what/who masterminded this? Well programming and the answer is as simple as that. It’s the human mind which is the center for such easy communication and no miracle thankfully.

When Tim-Berners Lee wished to share documents between two computers, he did a small programming and created a language which enabled him to share the documents. This language, he called HTML tags which were but simple designs then. With time, the HTML drafts by Lee and his team faded away. IETF a new team on the block, worked on these dead drafts and got a whole new HTML developed which became the version 2.0. This version was made in the year 1995. Over the years from 1991 to 1995 a whole team worked day and night to come up with something good for technology. But version 2.0 was not the end of HTML.

During the period between the version 2.0 and the building of the other versions a request was sent by IETF for comments on various factors like form based file upload, client side image maps, tables and internationalization. All this was given to the IETF in the year 2000. A certain Dave Raggett of the IETF, came up with the version 3.0 which contained all the elements mentioned in his proposal like tables, text flow around figures, and the display of complex mathematical elements. At the time it came into existence, it was too complicated from implementation point of view and so nobody took the project ahead. But the interesting fact is that instead of proposing a 3.1 version, a 3.2 version was proposed and many of the features of version 3.0 were removed due to the complexity.

Now at the time when 3.2 came into existence, IETF had closed down and it became officially declared by the W3C. After this straight away HTML 4.0 came into existence in the year 1997. This version contained certain flavors which were strict, transitional and frameset. It adopted browser specific attributes and removed some that were of no use. In 1998 the version 4.0 was re-released with some minor additions. This version too contained the same flavors but had some more additions. Version 4.01 came into existence in the year 1999. The latest version released in 2008 is the version 5.0. This shows that HTML has particularly undergone a lot many changes in the period of 17 years. It has survived in spite of its initial dismissal.