Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples, section 1 Preface:

About what? What's HTML 3.2?

This document discusses HTML 3.2, a version of the document description language HTML used on the Web. Its authoritative definition is W3C Recommendation HTML 3.2 Reference Specification. It is also known under the code name Wilbur.

People who have heard about HTML 3.0 should notice that HTML 3.2 is not an extension or a variant of it. (The version numbers 3.0 and 3.2 are misleading!) HTML 3.0 which was a draft which expired 1995, mainly due to major browser vendors' unwillingness to implement it, though vendors claimed conformance to it long thereafter!

More exactly, HTML 3.2 contains

HTML 2.0 (with a couple of minor omissions)
some features from HTML 3.0, partially restricted or otherwise modified; this in particular applies to tables
some vendor extensions upon which an agreement was found.

For a good summary of the new features in HTML 3.2 as compared with HTML 2.0, consult the article What's New in HTML 3.2 in the World Wide Web Journal, but please notice that it contains a few mistakes.

Next part: Why should you learn HTML?

Date of last update: 2010-12-16.

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