What kind of coding can I put on a webpage?

 A great website is not just visual. Behind the web page is coding that enhances the functionality, readability, and look of that site. There are several languages that can be used to enhance a website. Among those are HTML, JavaScript, JavaApplet, XML, PHP, SGML, DHTML, xHTML, ASP, and Java.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a non-proprietary display language based upon SGML, and can be created and processed by a wide range of tools, from simple plain text editors to sophisticated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) authoring tools. HTML uses tags such as <p> and </p> to structure text into headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext links etc.

JavaScript adds interactive functions to HTML pages, which are otherwise static. JavaScript deals mainly with the elements on the Web page. On the HTML page, JavaScript is maintained as source code embedded into an HTML page. On the server, it is compiled into bytecode (intermediate language), similar to Java programs.

A JavaApplet is a Java program that is downloaded from the server and run from the browser. The Java Virtual Machine built into the browser interprets the instructions.

Java is an object-oriented programming language designed to generate applications that can run on all hardware platforms, small, medium and large, without modification. Developed by Sun, Java has been promoted and geared heavily for the Web, both for public Web sites and intranets. Java was modeled after C++, and Java programs can be called from within HTML documents or launched stand alone.

XML (EXtensible Markup Language) is an open standard for describing data from the W3C. It is used for defining data elements on a Web page and business-to-business documents. It uses a similar tag structure as HTML; however, whereas HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines what those elements contain.

PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) is a scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. With syntax from C, Java and Perl, PHP code is embedded within HTML pages for server side execution. It is commonly used to extract data out of a database and present it on the Web page.

ASP (Active Server Page) is a web server technology from Microsoft that enables the creation of dynamic, interactive sessions with the user. An ASP is a Web page that contains HTML and embedded programming code written in VBScript or Jscript.

xHTML (Extensible HTML) is the combination of HTML 4.0 and XML 1.0 into a single format for the Web. xHTML enables HTML to be eXtended (the X in xHTML) with proprietary tags. xHTML is also coded more rigorously than HTML and must conform to the rules of structure more than HTML.