Currently when we mention HTML (HyperText Markup Language), we think of CSS and JS which are the basis for most web pages today, however HTML had to evolve to survive and finally stand as a king within programming. Curiously, its origins go back to 1980 with Tim Berners-Lee, a CERN researcher, who proposed a new 'hypertext' system for sharing documents.
Tim later presented his system with Robert Cailliau in a call to develop a hypertext system for the Internet. They won!!! …and the first formal document with the description of HTML, published in 1991, you can see it HERE
However, two years passed and in 1993 the first official proposal to convert HTML into a standard was made by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) but this time... They failed!!!
Two more years had to pass, 1995 arrived when the IETF organized an HTML working group and published the HTML 2.0 standard, this being the first official standard... thanks to this HTML is as large and used as it is today... in part… since that was not enough.
One more year, 1996, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) published the HTML 3.2 standards and a year later, in January 1997, The first W3C HTML recommendation was published.
The great 1998 arrived with an unexpected evolution of HTML 4.0 where the amazing CSS and the possibility of including small scripts enter. You can already imagine this great event, right? And even with this great leap, the last publication of HTML was in December 1999 with version 4.0.1.
Standardization activity stopped…
…the W3C focused on the development of the XHTML (XML-based HTML) standard…
So why is HTML the standard today?
In 2004 Apple, Mozilla and Opera organized themselves into a new association, the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) that focused on the HTML standard. Thanks to the strength of the companies that are part of the WHATWG and the publication of drafts in 2007, the W3C resumed the HTML5 standardization activities, the first draft of which was published in 2008.
Finally thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, the IETF, the changing W3C and the WHATWG on October 27, 2014 the final version of HTML5 was presented. Its intention is to create what has been called Open Web Platform where HTML5 together with CSS3 and JS can be used for the development of cross-platform applications. You can read the ‘application fundamentals’ published by Dr Jeff Jaffe (MIT) HERE
HTML5 was the first language with which I had contact and one of the ones that I feel is most accessible to use thanks to its syntax, a language that, if it were not for its evolution and the support of so many organizations, perhaps we would not know it today.
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