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HTML and CSS are both web languages. HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is used to structure a website or page using tags. CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is used to style and design that page or website. CSS can also be used to style multiple pages using only one cascading style sheet. HTML and CSS are still used to do this day to make webpages alongside other languages such as JavaScript.
HMTL was created in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee. The World Wide Web Consortium or W3C was created and took over development of HTML. W3C developed HTML versions one through four by 1998, but decided to stop developing it to work on a new markup langauage called XHTML. In 2004, W3C tested to see if HTML's evolution should be reopened, but resulted in rejection and was voted to keep developing XML. As a result of this, three well known companies came together, Apple, Mozilla, and Opera, to continue the development of HTML under a new organization. This organization was called the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group(WHATWG) and operated under the principles that it should be backwards compatible, and include what had been specified in previous versions. In 2006 W3C decided they wanted to help in the development of HTML5 and started helping WHATWG. Since then, both groups have been working together on HTML development.
Some advantages of HTML is that it is a relatively simple language to learn compared to others. HTML is also a very common type of language, so it is well interpreted by most browsers, is widely used, and multiple different markup languages are supported in HTML. Some cons of HTML is that a HTML can only be interpreted by a browser. There is also different languages and so many ways to do different things in HTML that it can be difficult to know what is going to work and what isn't. Browsers also play a part in this as they interpret the code differently than other browsers. One more con is that HTML is in American English, so it is difficult for people who don't know English to write in HTML. In conclusion, HTML is still a very effective language to code webpages and I believe it will still be used in the future, but I also think that more efficient languages or ways to make webpages will come along and possibly replace HTML or be used along side of it.
Like HTML, CSS is also developed and standardized by the W3C. In 1996 the firt version was released, known as CSS level 1 and was republished in 1999 due to corrections. In 1998, CSS level 2 began development. Level 2 was built off of level 1 but adds more features and revisions. The idea behind CSS was to seperate the design and content of a web site and that changes to the appearance needed to only be applied to the stylesheet. CSS is especially effective for large sites as it can save significant time by making one style sheet for the whole website instead of individual pages. CSS was developed solely as an addition to HTML and is desgined to define HTML tags.
The main advantage of CSS is the efficiency of it. The ability to style and define a whole website using one style sheet saves a significant amount of time than doing every individual page. Along with this, CSS also helps create and maintain consistency across a website which creates a professional and clean look. Like HTML, CSS is also easy to learn and is widely used so it has support of multiple browsers. A disadvantage of CSS is the fact that since it was developed solely for HTML, it is not useful anywhere else unless used in tandem with HTML. Another disadvantage of CSS is the fact that it is very specific and detailed which means it can get complicated and messy. In conclusion, CSS can be a very effective tool in making a website as it saves time in designing a site, but is only useful if used with HTML.
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