Web programming languages, in this research, refers to the programming languages that are used to create web pages, including markup languages (they are not considered programming language). There are a variety of web programming languages available to web programmers, but this research only covers those that are commonly used to keep the research short and detailed. The web programming languages that are reviewed in this research are HTML, XML, CSS (not a programming language too), JavaScript, PERL and PHP. These languages are further categorized into three (3) distinct categories. They are the non-programming languages (markup languages and style sheet), client-side programming languages and server-side programming languages. This particular categorization makes it easy to explain how these languages perform in producing web pages.
Web pages are made by using HTML, which allows structured content to be transferred across the network. Created by Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Web himself, HTML has become a standard structure for defining within just a few years, with major web browsers supporting it. Even though HTML was polluted when it became a hit, it managed to recover itself after being regulated by the W3C. But with HTML itself, web developers were restricted to producing static web pages. This is when client-side and server-side web programming languages come into picture. Server-side programming languages are called as they are because, well, they reside on the server. Same like a regular programming language, commands or codes written by the programmer will be executed on the server. The server will then return a dynamically created web page based on the commands, back to the user. Client-side programming languages, on the other hand, revolves around the user (client). They are handled by the web browser, and are executed without the need of a connection to the server. These kind of languages add interactivity to web sites. By using all these languages, web developers are able to come up with state-of-the-art web pages that will mesmerize any user who visit them. Web pages have evolved far from being a static page 16 years ago. |