I’m still trying to figure out exactly how HTML5 fits in with XML and XHTML and would appreciate anyone helping me out on that. In the mean time…
W3.org 2008-06-10: The HTML Working Group has published three documents: HTML 5, HTML 5 differences from HTML 4, and the first public draft of HTML 5 Publication Notes . HTML 5 introduces features for Web application authors, new elements based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. See the diff-marked version showing changes made since the 22 January 2008 draft. Learn more about the HTML Activity. (Permalink)
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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2 Replies to “Three HTML 5 Related Drafts Published 2008”
I think it’s a completely different animal. XML & XHTML will continue on their road, and HTML 5 will be a continuation of the HTML road. Those who just want a basic page will continue to use HTML and it will generally be looser and more forgiving of errors. XML and XHTML will be available for those who want to expand beyond simple web pages and get functionality that will help bring in the Semantic Web and Web 3.0. That’s my take on it!
Until Internet Explorer supports XHTML as XML (instead of using a “tag soup” parser).. there’s going to be lots of HTML documents on the web.
HTML 5 is trying to provide a common baseline for implementors (web browsers, accessibility software & APIs, JavaScript libraries, etc) to work from. Much of the reverse engineering between Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer has left us in a sub-optimal state for HTML.
Besides the handling of parsing and DOM consistency issues HTML 5 introduces features browser vendors have been begging for such as <canvas> and an offline storage mechanism (think Google Gears).
Several parts of HTMl 5 are already implemented in shipped and beta web browsers. Opera 9.5, Internet Explorer 8 beta, Safari 3 & 4 (and anything webkit based going forward), and Firefox 3 (again, anything using recent versions of gecko) all have various implementations of HTML 5 you can use today.
There’s a lot of great presentations and test cases you can try out now, just Google around for HTML5 or “HTML 5” to see ideas on how it will benefit end-users, web authors and web developers.
Elements (and supporting attributes & DOM features) such as canvas, video, and audio have received a lot of attention. Offline storage should also have a number of interesting demos. A lot of the consistency and error-handling work only helps out with “plumbing” that most end-users won’t notice… and that’s how it should be. 🙂
I think it’s a completely different animal. XML & XHTML will continue on their road, and HTML 5 will be a continuation of the HTML road. Those who just want a basic page will continue to use HTML and it will generally be looser and more forgiving of errors. XML and XHTML will be available for those who want to expand beyond simple web pages and get functionality that will help bring in the Semantic Web and Web 3.0. That’s my take on it!
Until Internet Explorer supports XHTML as XML (instead of using a “tag soup” parser).. there’s going to be lots of HTML documents on the web.
HTML 5 is trying to provide a common baseline for implementors (web browsers, accessibility software & APIs, JavaScript libraries, etc) to work from. Much of the reverse engineering between Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer has left us in a sub-optimal state for HTML.
Besides the handling of parsing and DOM consistency issues HTML 5 introduces features browser vendors have been begging for such as <canvas> and an offline storage mechanism (think Google Gears).
Several parts of HTMl 5 are already implemented in shipped and beta web browsers. Opera 9.5, Internet Explorer 8 beta, Safari 3 & 4 (and anything webkit based going forward), and Firefox 3 (again, anything using recent versions of gecko) all have various implementations of HTML 5 you can use today.
There’s a lot of great presentations and test cases you can try out now, just Google around for HTML5 or “HTML 5” to see ideas on how it will benefit end-users, web authors and web developers.
Elements (and supporting attributes & DOM features) such as canvas, video, and audio have received a lot of attention. Offline storage should also have a number of interesting demos. A lot of the consistency and error-handling work only helps out with “plumbing” that most end-users won’t notice… and that’s how it should be. 🙂