A Brief History of HTML

What is HTML
The use of  the World Wide Web has be growing at a phenomenal rate. As the Web grows, so does its language vehicle, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML is used as a markup language to format Web elements, such as text, graphics, etc. 

Nowadays, with the development of many Web editors called WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), such as Microsoft Front Page, the process of creating Web documents are more easier. Web developers don't have to concentrate much on the syntax of the HTML, but they rather concentrate on the art of the Web design techniques. However, the basic brick for the Web's "buildings" is still based on the raw material: HTML. WYSIWYG just simplifies the process of writing HTML.

The HTML 2.0 specification was dated on November, 1995.  Later the HTML 3.0 specification was drafted without final standard specification. Two years later, HTML 3.2 was recommended as a standard language for the Web by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on January 14, 1997. And on July 8, 1997, the W3C drafted HTML 4.0. This draft is still under many changes now in order to be recommended as a "Proposed Recommendation." In addition, Web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, still undergo changes to adopt the HTML 4.0. One final standard for Web browsers is still as wish for many Web developers: the difference is still there unfortunately!

HTML 4.0 introduces eight new elements. It also adopt frames officially. In addition, HTML 4.0 makes tables look better, and it also provides Style Sheet as a formatting tools and presentation. Multimedia, scripting, and printing are also improved. Furthermore, HTML 4.0 expands the number of alphabets and language in Web documents.

I have seen HTML documents that can be saved under extension (.html) and (.htm). What is the different?
The Unix-based platforms support only the HTML files with extension (.html), while Windows-based systems can support either (.html) or (.htm) extension. But there is no different when they are displayed on the Web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Make sure you save your HTML files with an (.html) extension if you are using Unix-based system.
Example: index.html (on Unix-based systems), for Windows-based systems, you can save your HTML file as "index.html" or "index.htm"