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**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435 "2002-12-13T04:36:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/1 "2002-12-13T04:36:06Z")
Is there some real difference to the layman between html and hml at the end of a web address? Or, should the layman forget it and simply accept it? - Jinx
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**Author:**  [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/2 "2002-12-13T04:41:04Z")
I’ve never seen hml at the end. If you’re referring to html vs. htm, it’s just the site creator’s preference. No difference.
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**Author:**  [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/3 "2002-12-13T04:43:00Z")
It could be qqq as long as it is associated with an HTML rendering program like your browser.
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**Author:**  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/4 "2002-12-13T04:45:26Z")
Correction! It’s HTM. By the way, I had a website change http to https! What’s that all about…? And then, it couldn’t load the page, afterall. - Jinx
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**Author:**  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/5 "2002-12-13T04:51:32Z")
HTTPS is secure HTTP. It’s the same protocol, but with a layer of encryption. This is what most sites use when asking for your credit card number or other stuff that people don’t want to send in plaintext.
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**Author:**  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/6 "2002-12-13T04:56:39Z")
HTML stands for **H** yper **T** ext **M** arkup **L** anguage, which is the basic language used to write web pages.
Because some operating systems prefer three-character extensions, it is occasionally shortened to .htm
There is no difference between the .html and .htm extensions other than the number of characters.
HTTP stands for **H** yper **t** ext **T** ransfer **P** rotocol, the basic system for transporting pages across the web.
HTTPS stands for **H** yper **t** ext **T** ransfer **P** rotocol **S** ecure, a newer protocol with more security used by some e-commerce sites.
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**Author:**  [@Snetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snetho)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/7 "2002-12-13T04:56:52Z")
HTTPS:
> **[What is Secure Sockets Layer?](https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/Secure-Sockets-Layer-SSL)**
>
> Learn how the SSL protocol secures internet and other communication, the SSL certification steps and how SSL compares to the more recent TLS.
> **[What is HTTPS (HTTP over SSL or HTTP Secure)? - Definition from WhatIs.com](https://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/HTTPS)**
>
> HTTPS (HTTP over SSL or HTTP Secure) is the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) as a sublayer under regular HTTP application layering.
HTM vs HTML:
> **[What is htm? - Definition from WhatIs.com](https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/htm)**
>
> htm is sometimes used as a short form of the file name suffix for an HTML file For example the file for our definition of computer might be named comput...
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**Author:**  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/8 "2002-12-13T15:41:09Z")
I think “.htm” is a leftover from the era of PCs-before-Windows95.
Windows 3.x and DOS restricted you to eight characters, a period, and three more characters. Because many people wanted to create web sites on PCs instead of Macs (and weren’t inclined to install some flavor of Unix to accomplish the deed – there was no Red Hat Linux to make that easy back then, btw), they had to violate the convention of using “.html” as the file extension and substitute the closest 3-letter equivalent, “.htm”
There’s no real reason to do so now.
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**Author:**  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/html-vs-hml/142435/9 "2002-12-14T14:31:45Z")
I’ll add that the file extension is meaningless as along as the _server_ recognizes it as something. Hence we get .PHP (which as a user looks exactly like an HTML file with the .PHP extension, but to the server means something else entirely).
Back in the early days, the _browser_ seemed to also be dependant upon the file extension. You could open a pure text file with no extension that contained HTML code, and you’d see the HTML code instead of the rendered page. I think that modern browsers don’t do any of that – anyone confirm if it’s MIME types from the server/OS or if it’s part of the HTTP header system? Or are they the same?