Web platform

The Web platform is a collection of technologies developed as open standards by the World Wide Web Consortium and other standardization bodies such as the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, the Unicode Consortium, the Internet Engineering Task Force, and Ecma International.^[1] It is the umbrella term introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium, and in 2011 it was defined as "a platform for innovation, consolidation and cost efficiencies" by W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe.^[2] Being built on The evergreen Web (where rapid, automatic software updates, vendor co-operation, standardization, and competition take place) has allowed for the addition of new capabilities while addressing security and privacy risks. Additionally, developers are enabled to build interoperable content on a cohesive platform.^[3]

The Web platform includes technologies—computer languages and APIs—that were originally created in relation to the publication of Web pages. This includes HTML,^[4] CSS, SVG, MathML,^[5] WAI-ARIA, ECMAScript, WebGL, Web Storage, Indexed Database API, Web Components, WebAssembly, WebGPU, Web Workers, WebSocket, Geolocation API, Server-Sent Events, DOM Events, Media Fragments, XMLHttpRequest, Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, File API, RDFa, WOFF, HTTP, TLS 1.2, and IRI.^[6]^[7]

Platforms

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript.

Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage and render the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page semantically and originally included cues for its appearance.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images and other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page. HTML provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes, and other items. HTML elements are delineated by tags, written using angle brackets. Tags such as <img> and <input> directly introduce content into the page. Other tags such as <p> and </p> surround and provide information about document text and may include sub-element tags. Browsers do not display the HTML tags but use them to interpret the content of the page.

HTML can embed programs written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, which affects the behavior and content of web pages. The inclusion of CSS defines the look and layout of content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), former maintainer of the HTML and current maintainer of the CSS standards, has encouraged the use of CSS over explicit presentational HTML since 1997.^[8] A form of HTML, known as HTML5, is used to display video and audio, primarily using the <canvas> element, together with JavaScript.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g., fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.^[9]

Scalable Vector Graphics

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.

SVG images are defined in a vector graphics format and stored in XML text files. SVG images can thus be scaled in size without loss of quality, and SVG files can be searched, indexed, scripted, and compressed. The XML text files can be created and edited with text editors or vector graphics editors, and are rendered by most web browsers. If used for images, SVG can host scripts or CSS, potentially leading to cross-site scripting attacks or other security vulnerabilities.

JavaScript

JavaScript is the scripting language of the Web, enabling us to implement all kinds of powerful dynamic features. The usage of JavaScript is not limited to browsers. You can use it in server and console environments with Node. ^[10]

References

^ "100 Specifications for the Open Web Platform and Counting". W3C. 2011-01-29. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
^ Henry S. Thompson (2011-03-28). "The future of applications: W3C TAG perspectives". W3C. Archived from the original on 2020-12-30. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
^ "The evergreen web". W3C. 2001. Archived from the original on 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
^ "HTML5: The jewel in the Open Web Platform". W3C. 2010-10-08. Archived from the original on 2013-05-30. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
^ "W3C Integrates Math on the Web with MathML 3 Standard". W3C. 2010-10-21. Archived from the original on 2020-07-05. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
^ "The Next Open Web Platform - Short list". W3C. 2011-01-29. Archived from the original on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
^ "WG Decision to publish HTML Microdata as a WG Note". W3C. 2013-10-02. Archived from the original on 2020-07-06. Retrieved 2014-08-15. No one has volunteered to edit the HTML Microdata specification as per the call for volunteers … Therefore, the HTML WG hereby resolves that the HTML WG cannot productively carry this work any further
^ "HTML 4.0 Specification — W3C Recommendation — Conformance: requirements and recommendations". World Wide Web Consortium. December 18, 1997. Archived from the original on July 5, 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
^ "What is CSS?". W3. Archived from the original on 2020-12-24. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
^ "JavaScript". Github. Archived from the original on 2023-05-31. Retrieved 2023-05-31.