Merkkauskieli

Merkkauskieli is a Finnish term that translates to "markup language." It refers to a system for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text. This annotation provides additional information about the structure, presentation, or semantics of the document. Markup languages are fundamental to many areas of computing and information processing.

The purpose of a markup language is to define how text content should be presented or interpreted. This can include instructions on formatting, such as making text bold or italic, or specifying structural elements like headings, paragraphs, and lists. Markup can also be used to embed data, link documents together, or describe the meaning of content.

Examples of widely used markup languages include HTML (HyperText Markup Language), which is the standard for creating web pages, and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), which is a flexible way to create custom markup languages for specific purposes. SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is an older, more complex standard from which XML and HTML have evolved. These languages use tags, which are special sequences of characters enclosed in angle brackets, to mark up text. The meaning of a tag is defined by the language's specification.

In essence, merkkauskieli provides a way to add metadata to plain text, enabling computers to understand and process the document's content more effectively, whether for display, data exchange, or other applications.