Skills needed for web programmers

If you are one of the many bitten by the web bug or a software professional keen on learning more about internet technologies, read on. In this series we will try and cover the various skill sets required to be a web programmer.

This week we shall explore HTML, DHTML and Javascript. These are commonly referred to as front end internet programming skills. These skills are widely in demand both in India and outside and could be your ticket to a lucrative career.

HTML is not a programming language and neither are Javascript and DHTML. HTML is a simple, universal, mark-up language while the other two are scripting languages. All of these are relatively simple and do not require extraordinary analytical skills or the mind of a certain Mr. Einstein. They need no super fast computer nor do they need fancy software, just a simple word processor and a web browser will do.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML has been in use by the World-Wide Web (WWW) global information initiative since 1990. The latest version of HTML is HTML 4.01.

DHTML stands for Dynamic Hypertext Mark-up Language. It combines HTML, style sheets, and scripts to make Web pages more interactive.

Javascript was first developed by Netscape and was christened Livescript. However, later Netscape had an alliance with Sun Microsystems the company behind Java, and Livescript became Javascript. However Javascript is has no relationship with Java. It is not a condensed version of Java.

HTML is the lingua franca for publishing hypertext on the World Wide Web. Put simply, HTML is a set of instructions given to the browser on how it should display a particular page. It can be created and processed by a wide range of tools, from simple plain text editors - you type it in from scratch- to sophisticated WYSIWYG ( What You See Is What You Get) authoring tools like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. Learning HTML is pretty simple as it is merely a series of tags, usually straightforward english words or abbreivations. These tags are distinct from the text in the document because they are encased in small angle brackets. For eg : . As shown in the example tags are usuallypairs. So, while is the opening tag, is the closing tag. The slash -/- distinguishes an closing tag from an opening tag. A basic HTML page is divided into two sections the section and the section. The section contains data which will not be displayed on the page itself like the which will appear on the title bar in the browser. The section contains the material which will appear on the web page.

Well, this was just an introduction to HTML, if you want to learn more please click on the links below.

Javascript is a scripting language developed by Netscape. Javascript helps make your web page more interactive. If you have been a web surfer, you must have seen web pages with images which change when you move your mouse over them . Javascript can enable things like these and much more with very little programming. Javascript is a excellent place to start if you are planning to move into programming languages like Java, Perl, etc. The Javascript is embedded into the HTML code in the

For more information check out the sites listed below.

Dynamic HTML (aka dHTML or DHTML) is simply HTML that can change even after a page has been loaded into a browser. A paragraph could turn blue when the mouse moves over it, or a header could slide across the screen. It's a concept that has been enabled by a number of technologies, including JavaScript, VBScript, the Document Object Model (DOM), layers, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Dynamic HTML is only supported by newer versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape(4.0 or higher). 

Dynamic HTML requires a good understanding of HTML, Stylesheets and Javascript, as Dynamic HTML involves a combination of all these to make the pages interactive. Right now both popular browsers from Microsoft and Netscape implement Dynamic HTML differently. But, these inconsistencies are being looked into by both the browser companies and World Wide Web Consortium.

For further information on Dynamic HTML look up the links below.