HTML as a language

[Gail Kampmeier]

>> >  Maybe it's semantics, but tell me what HTML stands for and I'll rest my
>> >  case.
>
>> I do not know what HTML stands for
>
>HTML stands for "Hypertext Markup Language" I must humbly admit that I
>do not know what "Markup" stands for.

"Markup" refers to the fact that HTML is a set of formatting codes for your
text, which can be written in any language--at least those able to be
rendered by romanized script, and likely others (although I must confess
that since I cannot read any of these I haven't gone looking for them).
Anyway, it doesn't matter what language your text is in. These tags enable
the computer to
"know" to render something in bold by preceeding anything you want in bold
with the tag <B> and when you want to stop the characteristic of bold, your
text then has the tag </B>.  This is very much like the old word processors
in the days before WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).  Any time you
wanted to send formatting instructions to the printer, you needed to put in
codes before and after your text so that the printer would know when this
formatting started and stopped.  Where this goes beyond those old word
processors is that you can tell the computer that you have other sorts of
elements as well, such as links (hence 'hypertext') to other spots on your
document or to any other document out on the web.

So as far as HTML becoming a 'language' standard for systematics, it really
isn't a standard language at all but a formatting tool.

Cheers!
Gail

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Gail Kampmeier, Research Entomologist
Illinois Natural History Survey
Box 5 NSRL-EASB, 1101 W. Peabody
Urbana, IL 61801
ph. 217-333-2824; fax 217-333-6784
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