Core Web Programming, Second Edition

1.2. HTML 4.0 and Other HTML Standards

Along with browser issues, to a lesser degree, authors must also contend with changes in the HTML specification. Until January 1997, HTML 2.0, introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), was the most up-to-date standard available. The HTML 2.0 specification describes the capabilities supported by most browsers as of mid-1994. Even before the HTML 2.0 was published, work was under way to define the next-generation specification, known first as HTML+ and later as HTML 3.0. Unfortunately, the vendors that emerged as the dominant players in the Web browser world could not agree on supporting HTML 3.0, and the effort was dropped. Instead, HTML 3.2 (originally code-named “Wilbur”), an intermediate specification, ...