Microsoft has been granted a US patent for a method that allows a computer user to write applications in HTML, without knowledge of technical programming languages. Such a file will run in its own window, free of an internet browser's security limitations.
HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the set of codes, commonly known as tags, inserted in a file intended for display on a web browser. The tags tell the web browser how to display a web page's words and images for the user.
Most of these tags come in pairs that indicate when some display effect is to begin and when it is to end - e.g. <B> indicates the start of bold text, and </B> indicates the end. HTML is a formal Recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is generally adhered to by the major browsers.
Many web users can write simple HTML, and some can use so-called scripting languages, such as JavaScript (not to be confused with Java) and VBScript. But relatively few have the skills to code in languages like Visual Basic, C or C++, languages used by programmers when developing applications to run on Windows or other operating systems, but outside a web browser.
So Microsoft's patent takes HTML skills and provides an opportunity to apply them beyond the constraints of the browser. It is described as covering: "A method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for authoring and executing HTML application files".
According to the filing:
"An HTML application file is basically a standard HTML file that runs in its own window outside of the browser, and is thus not bound by the security restrictions of the browser. The author of an HTML application file can take advantage of the relaxed security".
This gives the author freedom to create his own Windows application without the need for specialist technical knowledge. Being free of a browser's security constraints allows someone who only understands HTML to write applications that, when run, can read from a local computer and write to a local computer.