HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is currently the predominant presentation level standard for constructing World Wide Web documents. HTML Version 2 is documented in RFC 1866. HTML Tables are documented in RFC 1942.
So many people have written about HTML that it seems pointless to duplicate these efforts. For those seeking an HTML primer, I refer you to Toronto's Introduction to HTML and URLs, among many others.
For a criticism of HTML, see the end of the Encyclopedia's conclusions.