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When you want something to show up in italics in on the web, you enclose it in HTML markup that calls for italics, <i>like this</i>.
But wait, you might think: how come the stuff at the end of the previous sentence isn't italicized? Isn't it enclosed within the proper HTML tags?
The answer is: yes, as far as your looking at them is concerned, but if we consider what data is being received by your browser, the answer is no.
You see, when a web browser receives a text sequence consisting of a less-than sign, the letter 'i', and a greater-than sign, then whatever text follows is shown in italics, until the browser receives a character sequence consisting of a less-than sign, a forward slash, the letter 'i', and a greater-than sign, which terminates the italics.
The key here is that none of this markup is displayed on the screen; all that's shown is the italic text.
So, you may ask, how do you get a less-than or greater-than sign to display on a browser's screen?
<Like this!>
Easy. You render it as a so-called HTML 'entity', which in the case of the less-than sign is '<', and '>' in the case of the greater-than sign.
But wait, if '<' is supposed to show a less-than sign, how come we see '<' and not '<'? Does it have something to do with the enclosing single quotes?
It's not the single quotes. It's a variation on a theme.
HTML entities, you see, start with an ampersand, as in the case of '<'. But this ampersand --> & <-- is only displayed as an ampersand because your browser received the character sequence '&', which shows up as '&' on your browser's screen. The same is true for all other ampersands in this post.
So what shows up on your screen as '<' actually is fed to your browser as '&lt;', which converts the text into '<', which is not further interpreted, but simply output to your screen.
(As an exercise, the following is the HTML 'source' of the previous paragraph. See if you can figure out how it would be interpreted by your browser to render the paragraph that appears above:
Why did I go through all this?
Primo, to see if I could explain it clearly. (I think so, but then again...)
Segundo, to lay the basis for understanding why it's difficult to import LJ posts into WordPress.
But now, I must go off and translate a new document. Goody.
Cheers...
But wait, you might think: how come the stuff at the end of the previous sentence isn't italicized? Isn't it enclosed within the proper HTML tags?
The answer is: yes, as far as your looking at them is concerned, but if we consider what data is being received by your browser, the answer is no.
You see, when a web browser receives a text sequence consisting of a less-than sign, the letter 'i', and a greater-than sign, then whatever text follows is shown in italics, until the browser receives a character sequence consisting of a less-than sign, a forward slash, the letter 'i', and a greater-than sign, which terminates the italics.
The key here is that none of this markup is displayed on the screen; all that's shown is the italic text.
So, you may ask, how do you get a less-than or greater-than sign to display on a browser's screen?
<Like this!>
Easy. You render it as a so-called HTML 'entity', which in the case of the less-than sign is '<', and '>' in the case of the greater-than sign.
But wait, if '<' is supposed to show a less-than sign, how come we see '<' and not '<'? Does it have something to do with the enclosing single quotes?
It's not the single quotes. It's a variation on a theme.
HTML entities, you see, start with an ampersand, as in the case of '<'. But this ampersand --> & <-- is only displayed as an ampersand because your browser received the character sequence '&', which shows up as '&' on your browser's screen. The same is true for all other ampersands in this post.
So what shows up on your screen as '<' actually is fed to your browser as '&lt;', which converts the text into '<', which is not further interpreted, but simply output to your screen.
(As an exercise, the following is the HTML 'source' of the previous paragraph. See if you can figure out how it would be interpreted by your browser to render the paragraph that appears above:
So what shows up on your screen as '&lt;' actually is fed to your browser as '&amp;lt;', which converts the text into '&lt;', which is not further interpreted, but simply output to your screen.)
Why did I go through all this?
Primo, to see if I could explain it clearly. (I think so, but then again...)
Segundo, to lay the basis for understanding why it's difficult to import LJ posts into WordPress.
But now, I must go off and translate a new document. Goody.
Cheers...
