Introduction to HTML, HTML5 and How the Web Works
Welcome to the first lesson of Codementrix HTML5 Mastery. In this lesson, you will understand what HTML is, how modern HTML works, the difference between HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and how a browser displays a webpage.
1. Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:
- Explain HTML and its purpose in web development.
- Understand HTML5 and the modern HTML standard.
- Distinguish markup languages from programming languages.
- Explain the roles of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
- Understand the relationship between browsers, web servers and websites.
- Describe the basic request-and-response process of loading a webpage.
- Explain static HTML and dynamically generated HTML.
- Create, save and open your first HTML file.
2. What Is HTML?
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the standard markup language used to structure content on webpages.
HTML tells the browser what different pieces of content represent. For example, a heading is marked as a heading, a paragraph as a paragraph, and a navigation link as a link.
HTML uses elements represented by tags and attributes to describe document structure and meaning.
Example: Basic HTML Content
<h1>Welcome to Codementrix</h1>
<p>Learn web development step by step.</p>
<a href="https://codementrix.in">Visit Codementrix</a>In this example:
<h1>represents a top-level heading.<p>represents a paragraph.<a>represents a hyperlink.hrefis an attribute that specifies the link destination.
The browser interprets these elements and displays the content accordingly. You will study element syntax and attributes in detail in later sections.
3. Is HTML a Programming Language?
HTML is a markup language, not a general-purpose programming language.
A markup language identifies and structures content. A programming language can express computational logic, such as conditions, loops, functions and calculations.
HTML alone does not provide general-purpose programming logic. It can, however, work together with CSS and JavaScript to create complete web experiences.
Example
<p>Welcome to my website.</p>This HTML creates a paragraph. It does not calculate a result or make a decision.
JavaScript, by comparison, can perform a calculation:
const price = 100;
const quantity = 3;
const total = price * quantity;
console.log(total); // 300The example illustrates the difference between describing content with HTML and executing logic with JavaScript.