A Brief Introduction to the Internet

Browsers - the programs that format your screen

One of the first questions that came up when Tim Berners-Lee wanted to pass information across the internet was how to format the information on the screen. Tim developed the concept of HTML and browsers. Browsers are simply programs such as Microsoft Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Mosaic that receive the HTML information from the Internet servers and "paint" the screen according to the instructions received.

Which is the BEST browser? The answer is "YES!"

Internet web pages can consist of text, graphic files (pictures), audio files (music), and video files. They have to be formatted for your computer. The browser does the translating and formatting for you and provides you with a neatly formatted, colorful, musical presentation.

Microsoft Explorer and Netscape are the two most popular browsers in use today.

These links will take you to sites that have worlds of information about browsers.

Adrian Roselli of Evolt.org has compiled a very comperhensive list of browsers.
The Neill Corporation has a good discussion of browsers.
The Web Developer's Virtual Library has additional information about browsers.

HTML - How it Works - A VERY Brief Introduction

HTML - HyperText Markup Language - uses "tags" to indicate formatting commands. The language is constantly evolving, but there are a set of "standard" tags that comprise about 90% of the most commonly used tags. Below is an example of an HTML document.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title as it appears at top of browser window</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H2 align=center>Headings come in six sizes</H2>
The body contains the information you wish to display to the world.
<p>
<img src="picture.gif">
<img src="picture.jpg">
<p>
<a href="http"//mcob.usouthal.edu/wbeatty/">Link to Warren Beatty's Home Page</a>
<BODY>
</HTML>

The browser reads the formatting information in the tags and formats the screen.

Here is a Quick and Dirty Introduction to HTLM commands

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