What exactly does HTML5 mean?http://bit.ly/cCM89x
Just like AJAX/Ajax before it, there’s a battle running over what, exactly HTML5 means. It means many things and this article at Ajaxian.com (would it be html5.com if it were started today?) explains in detail what all the different references mean, and what features are in each. Good read for anyone trying to better understand “HTML5”.
Going deeper, I’ve broken these down into separate areas:
- “HTML5 Strict†– Things that are strictly inside the W3C’s HTML5 spec.
- “Referenced by HTML5″ – Things that are referenced by the HTML5 spec and which can optionally be parsed into the DOM and displayed.
- “Broken out of HTML5″ – Things that used to be part of HTML5 or its older iterations, called Web Applications and Web Forms.
- “HTML5 Family of Technologies†– Extended set of technologies not strictly part of HTML5 spec or referenced but likely to be used in conjunction with HTML5.
- “HTML5++†– More experimental technologies pushing the web forward that are not part of the HTML5 spec at all; may or may not see broader adoption.
One small note; there are actually two HTML5 specs, one maintained by the W3C and the othermaintained by the WhatWG.
Comments
One response to “What exactly does HTML5 mean?”
Phil,
I have been looking into HTML5. It has a lot of promise, but like any open technology, its a real F-ing mess. In terms of implementation and how fast its changing etc. As usual, like any commitee based technology it is going to take many years to evolve. Over the last year, due to this hype build up, it does look like it is coming along at a great rate. Still, more cooks are getting involve. (Too many cooks.. you know)
I suppose, your magical iDevices, and what they implement will become the defacto standard, if the Technorati get their way.
My friends that do development every day in Web (Here in Australia), laugh at all this hype. Say they will never use it. Not for many years as. They say their clients can only afford cross compatible we development, not just iDevices centric. Budgets don;t allow it. Maybe if your a “Head in the clouds” company running on VC. sure. Its all hype with those companies anyway. Profit is not a going concern.
I really like many of the IDEAS behind HTML5 combination of technologies, but still think its such a wide and complex SET of technologies, its much more expensive to implement as it is more expensive to write machine code over PHP.
I am keen to see a year of spinning wheels and let reality set in on all this Hype.
James