RFC 1866 (rfc1866) - Page 3 of 77
Hypertext Markup Language - 2
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
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
Berners-Lee & Connolly Standards Track