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HTML Tutorials

Different versions of HTML

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, markup developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s to describe web pages. HTML is now enshrined in numerous standard descriptions called specifications from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Work on HTML specifications for versions 1–4 ended in 1999.

When you add an X in front of HTML, you get XHTML, a reworked version of HTML based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). XML was designed to work and behave well with computers, software, and the Internet. XHTML was supposed to replace HTML, but increasing technical complexity in later versions caused it to fall by the wayside. (XHTML 2.0 was so complicated, it was neither widely adopted nor used very much at all). In 2004, the WHATWG began work on what is called a “Living Standard” for what is called HTML5 today. HTML5 already appears to be succeeding where XHTML did not. Even though the standard is still under construction, HTML5 is widely adopted and used on the web today.