RFC Number : 1866
Title : Hypertext Markup Language - 2.
Network Working Group T. Berners-Lee
Request for Comments: 1866 MIT/W3C
Category: Standards Track D. Connolly
November 1995
Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the 'Internet
Official Protocol Standards' (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Abstract
The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a simple markup language used
to create hypertext documents that are platform independent. HTML
documents are SGML documents with generic semantics that are
appropriate for representing information from a wide range of
domains. HTML markup can represent hypertext news, mail,
documentation, and hypermedia; menus of options; database query
results; simple structured documents with in-lined graphics; and
hypertext views of existing bodies of information.
HTML has been in use by the World Wide Web (WWW) global information
initiative since 1990. This specification roughly corresponds to the
capabilities of HTML in common use prior to June 1994. HTML is an
application of ISO Standard 8879:1986 Information Processing Text and
Office Systems; Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).
The 'text/html' Internet Media Type (RFC 1590) and MIME Content Type
(RFC 1521) is defined by this specification.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................... 2
1.1 Scope .................................................. 3
1.2 Conformance ............................................ 3
2. Terms .................................................. 6
3. HTML as an Application of SGML .........................10
3.1 SGML Documents .........................................10
3.2 HTML Lexical Syntax ................................... 12
3.3 HTML Public Text Identifiers .......................... 17
3.4 Example HTML Document ................................. 17
4. HTML as an Internet Media Type ........................ 18
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RFC 1866 Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0 November 1995
4.1 text/html media type .................................. 18
4.2 HTML Document Representation .......................... 19
5. Document Structure .................................... 20
5.1 Document Element: HTML ................................ 21
5.2 Head: HEAD ............................................ 21
5.3 Body: BODY ............................................ 24
5.4 Headings: H1 ... H6 ................................... 24
5.5 Block Structuring Elements ............................ 25
5.6 List Elements ......................................... 28
5.7 Phrase Markup ......................................... 30
5.8 Line Break: BR ........................................ 34
5.9 Horizontal Rule: HR ................................... 34
5.10 Image: IMG ............................................ 34
6. Characters, Words, and Paragraphs ..................... 35
6.1 The HTML Document Character Set ....................... 36
7. Hyperlinks ............................................ 36
7.1 Accessing Resources ................................... 37
7.2 Activation of Hyperlinks .............................. 38
7.3 Simultaneous Presentation of Image Resources .......... 38
7.4 Fragment Identifiers .................................. 38
7.5 Queries and Indexes ................................... 39
7.6 Image Maps ............................................ 39
8. Forms ................................................. 40
8.1 Form Elements ......................................... 40
8.2 Form Submission ....................................... 45
9. HTML Public Text ...................................... 49
9.1 HTML DTD .............................................. 49
9.2 Strict HTML DTD ....................................... 61
9.3 Level 1 HTML DTD ...................................... 62
9.4 Strict Level 1 HTML DTD ............................... 63
9.5 SGML Declaration for HTML ............................. 64
9.6 Sample SGML Open Entity Catalog for HTML .............. 65
9.7 Character Entity Sets ................................. 66
10. Security Considerations ............................... 69
11. References ............................................ 69
12. Acknowledgments ....................................... 71
12.1 Authors' Addresses .................................... 71
13. The HTML Coded Character Set .......................... 72
14. Proposed Entities ..................................... 75
1. Introduction
The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple data format used to
create hypertext documents that are portable from one platform to
another. HTML documents are SGML documents with generic semantics
that are appropriate for representing information from a wide range
of domains.
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RFC 1866 Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0 November 1995
As HTML is an application of SGML, this specification assumes a
working knowledge of [SGML].
1.1. Scope
HTML has been in use by the World-Wide Web (WWW) global information
initiative since 1990. Previously, informal documentation on HTML has
been available from a number of sources on the Internet. This
specification brings together, clarifies, and formalizes a set of
features that roughly corresponds to the capabilities of HTML in
common use prior to June 1994. A number of new features to HTML are
being proposed and experimented in the Internet community.
This document thus defines a HTML 2.0 (to distinguish it from the
previous informal specifications). Future (generally upwardly
compatible) versions of HTML with new features will be released with
higher version numbers.
HTML is an application of ISO Standard 8879:1986, 'Information
Processing Text and Office Systems; Standard Generalized Markup
Language' (SGML). The HTML Document Type Definition (DTD) is a formal
definition of the HTML syntax in terms of SGML.
This specification also defines HTML as an Internet Media
Type[IMEDIA] and MIME Content Type[MIME] called `text/html'. As such,
it defines the semantics of the HTML syntax and how that syntax
should be interpreted by user agents.
1.2. Conformance
This specification governs the syntax of HTML documents and aspects
of the behavior of HTML user agents.
1.2.1. Documents
A document is a conforming HTML document if:
* It is a conforming SGML document, and it conforms to the
HTML DTD (see 9.1, 'HTML DTD').
NOTE - There are a number of syntactic idioms that
are not supported or are supported inconsistently in
some historical user agent implementations. These
idioms are identified in notes like this throughout
this specification.
* It conforms to the application conventions in this
specification. For example, the value of the HREF attribute
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RFC 1866 Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0 November 1995