Talkin' 'Bout...My Blog

What HTML Is and Is Not

I have always wondered what HTML stands for. Now I know that it is an acronym for "Hyper-Text Markup Language". Upon further research, I also discovered that, contrary to what some people think (and possibly controversially in some quarters), HTML is not actually a computer programming language.

And In This Corner!!

In this HTML Vs. programming debate, we must first do as a wise man once said and first define our terms. By its very definition, a computer language must have certain capabilities: for example, decision statements, loops, and data manipualtion.

Decision statements allow the program to branch to different operations depending on the circumstances. If this, then do that. If that then do this instead. Programmers can make it seem like the computer is actualy thinking for itself.

Truly programming a computer also requires the ability to loop. Loop commands facilitate the repetition of code under certain conditions. Do this while that is true; or do that until this happens. Programmers can make sure a computer keep keeps working at a job until it is done, no matter how long, tedious, or repetitive it is.

A true computer language is also able to manipulate data. Add; subtract; multiply; divide. Reorganize; save; delete; sort. Increment; decrement. Update; verify; copy. Programmers enable computers to accurately do many of our tedious, error-prone tasks.

HTML in and of itself does none of these things. It has no decision capabilities, it does not loop, it does not manipulate data. It is solely used for telling the browser how to display data and information.

But What Would We Do Without HTML?

In all fairness, HTML is perfect for it's intended purpose: making web page content easier to create, more structured, and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Fortunately for us as designers -- and, if you'll forgive the hyperbole, for the entire world and its internet consumers at large -- what HTML does, HTML does very well. Almost as well as Chuck Norris would do, if Chuck Norris was HTML.

Is That My Carrot? No, It's MY Caret!!

I never knew that less than or greater than signs were also called "left carrots" and "right carrots", and I thought it sort of strange. But when I recalled my grade school math -- that it wasn't "carrots" as in the vegetable, but "carets", as in the math symbol I used in grade school for doing long division with decimals -- then it made sense. I'm sure glad my grade-school teacher gave me that cool little mnemonic: "It's called a caret because it looks like the tip of a carrot!"

Toto, We're Not Lacking in Emphasis Anymore!!

In the old days, when I first started working with computers, I always struggled with how to emphasize text in very simple word processing applications. The programmers never seemeed to deem it an important enough feature to include except in the most expensive of software. But in HTML they have: with the em tag. Em puts the word or words in italics and is used to change or enhance meaning, as the following examples illustrate, each of which has the connotation changed in a big way by where the emphasis is placed, starting with the "I" in the first example sentence:

• I didn't say he stole the money.
• I didn't say he stole the money.
• I didn't say he stole the money.
• I didn't say he stole the money.
• I didn't say he stole the money.

Exact same seven words; five, almost completely different meanings.

I also found em to be useful in italicizing whole quotes, like is often seen in headers of webpages:

Better three hours too soon, then a minute late.
      -- Shakespeare

Much of the coding in designing a web page is semantic in nature, more a matter of personal style (like positioning of the hr tag, for example -- before or after the article closing tag); or what makes sense to you for clarity of purpose in the mark-up commands (like the organizational system of your headers, font size, and emphasis tags). How much whitespace and how many indents do you feel you need to make it easier to follow the code? How do you want to style your headlines and subheadlines to enhance the clarity of context? What do you find the most visually appealing and least straining to the eye? Chances are, if it pleases you, it will please many others as well. I say many, because these are still the things of personal opinion, as well as accepted convention. But don't be a slave to what others have done, or say it is the way it has to be done, or just because that's what everybody else does it. Be yourself. To quote once again from Shakespeare, "This above all; to thine own self be true. "

Just What the Heck Does "http" Stand For?

I have never had any idea just what "http" stood for, or meant. As you can tell, my guesses got way out there. Being required to include http in the URL for the links on a web page was no big surprise, but now I understand just what that un-voweled little quasi-word stands for: hypertext transfer protocol!!

Huh??

Simply put, this just signifies the way data will be transferred back and forth between your computer and the web. I guess in a way that does make it transmutational. Maybe I'm not as far out there as I thought!