How To Learn Markup Language

A previous article I wrote on H T M L was good, but what about seeing how others do cool stuff on MySpace? Well, the answer to this question requires much more detail and understanding of how web pages work. However, to start from a simple perspective think of those love letters to your secret someone, a spark you wish to develop into a flame. If you are somewhat artistic you may draw hearts, figures, or other doodles expressing your love visually. Think of ML as meaning "My Love" and by creating doodles in your letter you have "Marked-Up" your letter with the little images ( or words) of the Love Language. "My Love Language" or ML for short is the second half of HTML and really means "Mark-up Language". (Marking up your language of love) Think of HT the first part of HTML to mean "Hot-Text" describing your passionate love in those ML letters. Now what you have is; "Hot Text My Love", for you and only for you. (HTML).

I don't know about you but I remember trying to pass many HTML documents fearing teacher interception or laughter brought on by the class bully's thoughtless exposé of my HTML to the class. You know what I am talking about!

A clumsy hand off from one friend to another fumbled to the floor where your worded passion sits vulnerable and open to capture by the teacher or class bully. The bully being much faster than the teacher proudly stomps your HTML smashing it on the floor with his or her stinky sneakers. A feeling of helplessness and doom as your crushed letter is unraveled and waved about as if someone just won the lottery.

However, in the era of MySpace isn't it true that you want to broadcast your love to the world foregoing the teacher and class bully? If not a world broadcast, perhaps a private profiles invite?

Well, regardless if the class bully or teacher intercepts your HTML you understand that your desperate plea for love via HTML is easily understood by the class bully or teacher and can be intercepted. What you didn't really pay attention to is the HTML transport method. Meaning, how your HTML is moved from you to your love flame. This is a new term in understanding HTML and is called HTTP. Think of HTTP as "Hot Text Transfer by Palm". Think of your hot sweaty palm transferring your packaged HTML to your best friend in hopes that he or she is not clumsy or obvious in your HTML transfer to the love of your dreams. You see; HTTP is the delivery method and HTML is the message.

That covers what the message is (HTML) and how the message is delivered (HTTP) but if your memories are the same as mine I recall securely folding that letter up to avoid long distance prying eyeballs. It seems almost too obvious to say, but that palmed wad of paper professing your love can't be read when it is all wadded up right? That brings us to the next piece of the "HTML Cool-Stuff" puzzle; reading the message.

I know, when I was younger I really wanted my love flame to open that message immediately. My hope was a heartfelt teary-eyed "wow someone loves me" response indicated by soft glances and sighs of "oh-s" from across the room. Well, imagine your lover unfolding that letter, smoothing it out, smiling and beginning to read your steamy words. First, the greeting, then the prose of your love line by line until your lover arrives at your last line. The profession of your everlasting love right?

Now that I have your attention; how do you think your lover reads your message on the internet? The answer is a web browser. Web browsers do the same thing as I have described above. Unfold the letter, reads the greeting, reads the lines, and reads the end. There are many different HTML browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Fire Fox, Netscape Navigator, Opera, KDE Konqueror, Apple Safari and a few others. All take your HTML, open it, read it, and display it to your lover after it has been received by HTTP.

Holy Klondike bar batman! ... This author better reward me for hanging on this far! That said; here is where you get to be the classroom bully or the prying teacher. Imagine yourself as the super bully or all-knowing teacher able to intercept messages with a single thought or click of the mouse. Well, it's true you can read all of those HTML messages on MySpace or other web sites, such as FaceBook very easily.

Using your browser as the bully tool of choice you can exercise your perceptive powers of HTML interception and reading by using the web page menus. How? Simple, most web browsers allow you to unfold that letter by a "View-Source" command located on a menu somewhere. With internet explorer click the VIEW menu and then click "View Source". With FireFox click the "View" menu and then click "View Page Source". With Opera click the view menu and then click "View Source". These menus make you like the teacher or bully; intercepting an HTML message and reading the real ML markup language. This works with any web site such as MySpace, Yahoo, Google, MSN, AOL, and millions of others. This is how you figure out how to do that very cool MySpace stuff that others are doing. Look at the HTML and hugs (aka TAGS) and before you know it you will easily read that Hot Text to My Love (HTML) and will be able to do the same.

This article was about how to "unfold" and see what "Cool-Stuff" that others are doing via HTML (Hugs To My Letters or Words) and the awesome tags that make you the coolest lover, bully or teacher ever. Please keep in mind that you will see HTML ranging from very simple to very complex when you view the HTML source.

Just like a bully that doesn't understand the errors of his or her ways you will not understand the entire HTML you see. However, you can use the source HTML as examples to try. Keep in mind that the Bully's intent was never plagiarism but rather a stunted and ineffective attempt to be cooler by embarrassing you; so don't plagiarize and only use other's examples to help you learn cool HTML. Think of it this way; if your lover discovered your HTML was a copy you didn't write would he or she really desire your love when the passion was really someone else's passion? If I received a plagiarized copy of an HTML message I might be seeking the original author to meet my passionate love needs. Ouch, a case of pure jealousy is the sure outcome.

So to sum it up.... HTTP (Hot Text Transfer by Palm) and HTML (Hot Text My Love) is how the internet receives (and sends) messages for display by a web browser. The geeky and less passionate terms for these abbreviations are Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The web browser is the tool for unfolding and reading HTML and displaying the cool results.

Get passionate, get creative, heck... even get geeky! Whatever you do; you can do passionately with a simple click of the mouse and "view the source" of your (for your) everlasting love! It's all in the HTML. Just learn a few dozen hugs and you are well on your way to learning HTML and all the cools stuff people do on MySpace.