Once this connection is established, the magic of the World Wide Web begins. A type of data file known as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is transferred to the client machine. If the client is using what is known as a Web browser, the HTML file will be translated and displayed on the screen. The first popular Web browser was distributed freely by the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (ncSA). This browser was known as Mosaic. Other popular browsers include Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Spyglass Mosaic, Cello, and many others.
The format of HTML is standards-based. A consortium of organizations (including representatives from the banking, healthcare, government, and computer business sectors) known as the World Wide Web Consortium collectively vote on and manage the official HTML syntax. The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C as it is also known, can be located at http://www.w3.org. At the time this book was published, the latest version of HTML, known as HTML 3.2, was being finalized.
When browser manufacturers (such as Netscape) add proprietary features to HTML, they press extremely hard for these features to be added to the next release of the HTML specification. Such was the case when Netscape 2.0 announced support for tables and Java applets. At that time, no other browser supported these two features, so the popularity of the Netscape browser increased dramatically. Partly because of this popularity and partly because these two items were truly good ideas, HTML 3.2 will support both tables and Java applets. Therefore, from this point on, if a browser manufacturer announces support for HTML 3.2, Java developers can be sure that their applet will run unmodified within that browser.
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