HTML FORMS
Wait just a minute. Aren't HTML forms interactive? Okay, you're right! So before you move on to an overview of Web programming languages, take a brief look at the interactivity available with HTML forms.
HTML forms are a unique part of HTML because to function, they need an additional language to process the form data. Basically, what the HTML part of forms code does is to do what markup languages do best: specify the formatting of the form.
Figure 1-1 shows a basic HTML form. As you can see, this form includes two textboxes, two radio buttons, three checkboxes, a text area, and a button used to submit the information. Each of these form elements gives the visitor an opportunity to interact with the page and enter information.
HTML provides the markup tags to create the structure of this form, and most forms you see on Web pages have a similar appearance -- a text box may have a different size or different color background, but otherwise they usually look very much the same.
HTML can easily create the structure of a form, but the additional pieces that you see in the HTML code are there to interact with a script. The HTML creates the format for the user to input data; however, after the data is there, you need a script to work with this information.
