# What is HTML?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is worth learning, no matter what your future in technology might be. It allows us to provide interactivity with the end-user with dynamic, responsive content. Programming with a graphical user interface (GUI) is a little beyond the scope of our course but is an easy way to begin front-end design.
There are several methods to generate *good* programs with a GUI and back-end. C++ and Java developers would recognize the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm. We will take a more relaxed approach, starting with the basics - getting content onto a web page.
## What is HTML?
I will do my best to explain, but there are thousands of better tutorials online. [Here's a fantastic one](https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/what-is-html) and [here is a free online course](https://www.sololearn.com/Course/HTML/).
HTML ***is not a programming language***. It is, quite specifically, a **markup** language. It is not responsive or dynamic, does not run or interpret code. HTML provides content and how the content looks. It is downloaded from a server (computer) as a plain-text file and interpreted on-the-fly by the browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, etc).
**Hypertext** is content that can link to other files, folders, or locations through navigation (clicks). Hypertext documents are connected through passive "links".
**HTML** utilizes opening and closing ***tags*** around content in order to organize and decide what that content should look like. An opening, or beginning tag uses arrow brackets `< >` and a closing, or ending tag with contain a slash ``. For example, paragraphs of text are surrounding with the `` and `
` tags.
**Example**: You can emphasize text with the `` tag like this:\
`This text will look italic, while this does not.`\
Will produce: *This text will look italic,* while this does not.
There is quite the history to HTML and it has come a *long* way (version 5.2 as of this writing). If you wish to see all the possible tags along with **way** more information, I highly recommend the [W3Schools Reference](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp). There is also a great cheat sheet provided by [Hostinger Tutorials](https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/html-cheat-sheet).
## HTML File Structure
Think of an HTML file like a person. It has private thoughts, kept inside the `head` (one would hope) and a `body` that people can see (and even interact with). This, along with many other elements is called the [**Document Object Model**](https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_htmldom.asp) (DOM).
The `head` and `body` are the two major elements inside your basic `html` file. These also happen to be the first tags you'll need to write:
```markup
```
That would be a very boring web page - there's no content! Let's break it down.
* The opening and closing `` and `` tags tell the interpreter (browser) that this is in HTML format and to interpret everything between those tags as such.
* The `` and `` tags define an area for hidden content that the end-user does not typically see. Hidden information could be meta-data (like search tags), loading external files in the background, and giving your page a ``.
* Between the `<body>` and `</body>` tags is where the real magic happens! This is where you will define the content and structure of your page. 99% of your page content will be between these tags.
### Hello World!
Perhaps the simplest possible HTML file, but worth exploring. Create a new blank text document in your favourite text editor (notepad on Windows, etc). In your document, copy and paste the following:
{% code title="helloworld.html" %}
```markup
<html>
<head>
<title>My First HTML Page!
Hello World!