History of HTML5; A Fragment

 

• Overview of the emergence of web pages

• The Historical Development of the World Wide Web

• HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The markup (formatting) language for the web.

• URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A kind of “address” that is unique and used to identify to each resource on the web. It is also commonly called a URL.

• HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from across the web.

• Decentralisation: No permission is needed from a central authority to post anything on the web, there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure … and no “kill switch”! This also implies freedom from indiscriminate censorship and surveillance.

There are many ways that we can create a webpage. However, we need to make a trip with the emergence of the World Wide Web until the emergence of HTML5.

The origins of web pages are divided into several stages: the stage of the historical development of the emergence of the World Wide web, the stage of the emergence of the TCP / IP protocol, then the stage of the appearance of web pages. Below I’ll explain each stage separately.

The World Wide Web did not appear suddenly. In the early 1970s, many American agencies, scientific research centers, and universities used the beginnings of the Internetwork. For example, the US Department of Defense used an information network to link their institutions to each other, which was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). Because every organization used its own internal network and communication between the devices of this network is in a language different from other networks from here, the need for a protocol that unites those different languages to connect different networks with each other emerged. 

The first page of Tim Berners-Lee's proposal for the World Wide Web, written in March 1989 (Image: CERN)

By October of 1990, Tim had written the three fundamental technologies that remain the foundation of today’s web (and which you may have seen appear on parts of your web browser):

 

A screenshot showing the NeXT world wide web browser created by Tim Berners-Lee

The early web community produced some revolutionary ideas that are now spreading far beyond the technology sector:

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• Non-discrimination: If I pay to connect to the internet with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or a greater quality of service, then we can both communicate at the same level. This principle of equity is also known as Net Neutrality.
  
  
• Bottom-up design: Instead of code being written and controlled by a small group of experts, it was developed in full view of everyone, encouraging maximum participation and experimentation.
  
  
• Universality: For anyone to be able to publish anything on the web, all the computers involved have to speak the same languages to each other, no matter what different hardware people are using; where they live; or what cultural and political beliefs they have. In this way, the web breaks down silos while still allowing diversity to flourish.

New permutations of these ideas are giving rise to exciting new approaches in fields as diverse as information (Open Data), politics (Open Government), scientific research (Open Access), education, and culture (Free Culture). But to date we have only scratched the surface of how these principles could change society and politics for the better.

In 2009, Sir Tim co-founded the World Wide Web Foundation with Rosemary Leith. The Web Foundation is fighting for the web we want: a web that is safe, empowering and for everyone.

• The Emergence of the TCP/IP Protocol

In the early seventies the scientist Vint Cerf and the scientist Bob Kahn developed a protocol that has the ability to link different networks to each other and was the beginning of solving the Internet problem that lies in the different languages dealing with networks, and this protocol was called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and this protocol serves as the basic building block for the Internet. 

First, we have to look at Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which basically describes a protocol that will work on any sort of computer and operating system for transportation of packets of data across the internet or studio network between different systems.

Early concepts of packet networking were developed at several different research labs in the US and overseas, initially for military use. In the late 1970’s, a set of networking protocols that allowed two or more computers to communicate, known as TCP/IP, were developed by The Defense Data Network, part of the Department of Defense, for widespread industry use across its Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANet). ARPANet was an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite known as TCP/IP. Soon, several other TCP/IP prototypes were developed at multiple research centers between 1978 and 1983. However, the migration in the US of the ARPANet to TCP/IP was officially completed on January 1, 1983, when the new protocols were permanently activated across what has since become the World Wide Web.

For production professionals, TCP/IP has become very important to audio file delivery and networking because it allows the flexibility to route resources to any part of a facility (or remote location) from a centralized position. It also facilitates the development of Audio-over-IP (AoIP) networks that allow convenient control and monitoring of equipment and systems, and the rapid transfer of audio and firmware files between components.

 

        MOVING FORWARD

The effect that the Internet Protocol has had on today’s audio professional cannot be overstated. TCP/IP ensures that data will get to the correct destination and received in the correct order. We’re living in a time of massive online growth. IP has helped make sense of it all and, really, saved the day by making our lives a whole lot easier. And the best part: an IP network will be relevant and easily upgradable for years to come.

 

• The Appearance of Web Pages

After the tremendous development of the Internet, especially with the emergence of the TCP/IP protocol, interest in the web began. In the early 1990s, the scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used in the design of web pages, and it depends on two basic technologies:

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). 

•  Web Browser, used to display the web pages of the user.

 

 

 

By the end of 1990, Berners-Lee, using a Steve Jobs-designed NeXT computer, had developed the key technologies that are the bedrock of the Web, including Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), for creating Web pages; Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a set of rules for transferring data across the Web; and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), or Web addresses for finding a document or page. He also had devised a basic browser and Web server software. 

 

Berners-Lee didn’t try to cash in on his invention and rejected CERN’s call to patent his Web technology. He wanted the Web to be open and free so it could expand and evolve as rapidly as possible. As he later said, “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.” In 1993, a team at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications released Mosaic, the first Web browser to become popular with the general public. The next few years saw the launch of such websites as Yahoo (1994), Amazon (1995), eBay (1995) and Google (1998). By the time Facebook debuted in 2004, there were more than 51 million websites, according to Internet Live Stats.

•  The Emergence of Markup Languages 

After we got acquainted with the stages of the emergence of web pages, we will learn about Markup Languages, as well as the difference between some markup languages and programming languages.