Speaking the Same Language

I've always wanted to learn to speak another language and whilst French or maybe Italian were the two at the top of my list, now I'm thinking that they'll have to take a backseat while I try to learn to speak "computer".

The most common of all computer languages, as I was informed today, is called HTML.

Hypertext Mark-up Language is used by browsers like Chrome or my personal favourite Safari, to display information that is so that we, mere humans that we are, can read the web documents as either audio or visual material. The way that HTML does this is through the use of tags, which determine what certain structural elements of that particular web document might be. For example, a paragraph could be tagged with <p> and the browser would be able to see that the particular web document contained a paragraph by reading and understanding the <p> to mean "paragraph". It could read that and understand it because of HTML.

Now HTML is concerned with formatting and the structure, the layout of a web document and in that sense it has a lot (and this apparently cannot be stressed enough) A LOT to do with linking things. I mean, if you had a document that was 15 pages long, there would need to be quite some time spent scrolling though those 15 pages. What HTML does is link those pages as 15 separate one-page documents all connected together, so instead of scrolling and feeling about the same size as a pea from the sudden onslaught of information being presented to you, instead, you get to sit back and be maybe the size of a grapefruit instead. Or any other medium to large sized fruit or vegetable even of your choosing.

And whilst HTML was used quite a bit, it wasn't until 2000 (and HTML 4) that it was recognised as being "legit" and the standard, most common language dominating the readability of the web.

Some people, however, began to feel that maybe HTML wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. They started thinking that maybe not being able to separate the form and content of a document was some big deal or whatever. So then they came up with XML.

XML allows a browser to define the content and the form of a document separately, still through the use of tagging. The only difference is that now things like <link> and <title> can be determined and defined within and by the browser. A big thing within eXtensible Mark-up Language is that users can now define their own tags, which is basically where the whole extensible/extendable thing comes into it, let alone into the title. XML was all about focusing on what the data was, defining it, storing and transporting it. Comparatively, HTML was all about the look, what the data looked like. Although, these are two very separate functions/languages, the line between has become a little bit fuzzy with the introduction of HTML5, the latest in a long line of HTML and other web languages.

You can basically understand everything on this web page that is my blog because of the presence and understanding capability of HTML/XML/XHTML. One of those ones. So woot for them!

I think for me, it's just cool to think that the computers and the various elements within them and elements that use them, like the web, can all communicate to each other. We study human and animal communication and really most people just stop there when it comes to thinking about objects and entities that can communicate with each other. It's just weird to think that computers are doing that the entire time we are using them. Conveying and transporting information between each other, in a language of their own. It's kind of fun to imagine what the computers would be saying to each other if they were speaking English or if we could actually understand them.

I wonder what their take on the Olympics would be?



Image available: http://www.lobsangrampa.org/research.html