Web developers 'must know HTML'

08/08/2008

A surprising proportion of website design specialists do not know HTML, according to one expert.

Writing for ZDNet Asia, Tony Patton of TechRepublic said that while such developers may think they can work without knowing HTML, in reality it can be extremely useful to be able to work with it.

He stressed that a website is, essentially, built on HTML, regardless of the platforms or tools used to create the site.

To this end, knowing HTML can make it easier to identify site bugs and to work with any application without needing knowledge of the development tools used to build the site, Mr Patton said.

"Knowledge of the source code gives you greater control of the end result. You can use your favourite tool to build the application and dig into the source code to tweak it," he commented.

HTML was first mentioned by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in the early 1990s.