What is HTML and Setting Up Your Development Environment
Welcome to Day 2 of the 180 Days of Frontend Development Challenge. Today, we’ll introduce you to HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the foundation of every website, and guide you through setting up a simple yet efficient development environment.
What is HTML?
HTML is the standard markup language used to create the structure of web pages. It consists of a series of elements (or tags) that define different parts of a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, links, images, and forms.
-
HTML Elements are written with opening (
<tag>
) and closing (</tag>
) tags, with content in between. -
Attributes provide additional information about elements (e.g.,
href
in<a href="...">
defines a link destination).
Example of a basic HTML structure:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First Webpage</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello, World!</h1>
<p>This is my first HTML page.</p>
</body>
</html>
Why is HTML Important?
- It defines the skeleton of a webpage.
- Without HTML, browsers wouldn’t know how to display content.
- It works alongside CSS (for styling) and JavaScript (for interactivity).
Setting Up Your Development Environment
Before writing HTML, you need the right tools. Here’s what you’ll need:
-
Text Editor (Where you write code)
- VS Code (Recommended) – Free, lightweight, and packed with extensions.
- Alternatives: Sublime Text, Atom, or Notepad++ (for beginners).
-
Web Browser (To view your webpage)
- Google Chrome or Firefox – Best for developer tools (Inspector, Console).
-
File Organization
- Create a dedicated folder for your projects (e.g.,
Frontend-180-Days
). - Inside, make a subfolder for each day (e.g.,
Day-2-HTML
).
- Create a dedicated folder for your projects (e.g.,
-
Your First HTML File
- Open VS Code, create a new file, and save it as
index.html
. - Type the basic HTML structure above and save.
- Open the file in Chrome by double-clicking it or dragging it into the browser.
- Open VS Code, create a new file, and save it as
Viewing Your Work
- After saving changes in VS Code, refresh your browser to see updates.
- Use Chrome DevTools (Right-click → Inspect) to debug and experiment.
Practice Exercise
- Create an
index.html
file. - Add a heading (
<h1>
), a paragraph (<p>
), and a link (<a href="...">
). - Open it in your browser and verify it works.
Additional Resources
For a structured learning path, check out the "Get to Learn Frontend Development in 180 Days" ebook:
📖 Download Here
What’s Next?
Tomorrow, we’ll dive deeper into HTML Elements and Attributes, exploring more tags and their uses.
Keep experimenting, and see you on Day 3!
(Tip: Consistency beats intensity—spend at least 30 minutes practicing today.)
Top comments (3)
aight
Thanks on to the next
Day 3 let's goo🚀🚀
Nice
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