The main purpose of HTML is to format text in a readable way, while the main purpose of Javais to manipulate data to create complex interactive applications. HTML can be referred to as a web mark-up language. The coding is created withHTML tags, however, different Browsers interpret HTML differently. HTML is static, and has little programming capabilities other than Server Side Includes.

Java is what is called “a full-featured development language” that is used to write stand alone programs. Java is platform neutral which means that it (theoretically) should run under many different operating environments… such as Windows 95/98 (not earlier), MacOs, NT 3.5 (and up), etc.

Java *applets* (derivative of Java) are small programs that download over the Internet and are viewable by Java-enabled browsers. Again, because of Java’s cross platform properties, applets generally run identically on any browser that is Java-enabled.

To be a lot more creative with some dynamic effects, games, etc., then Java applets are powerful allies. Since they also work well with Javascript (no relation to Java), you can create some very content-oriented pages. Not all browsers / versions support applets, so testing is imperative.

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