Jump to content

HTML5

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Html5 (talk | contribs) at 15:18, 19 April 2010. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
HTML5
(HyperText Markup Language)
Filename extension
HTML: .html, .htm
XHTML: .xhtml, .xht, .xml
Internet media type
HTML: text/html
XHTML: application/xhtml+xml, application/xml
Type codeTEXT
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)public.html
Developed byW3C HTML WG, WHATWG
Type of formatMarkup language
Standard

HTML5 is being developed as the next major revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Apache Pivot, and Sun JavaFX.

W3C Standardization Process

The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) started work on the specification in June 2004 under the name Web Applications 1.0.[1] As of March 2010, the specification is in the Draft Standard state at the WHATWG, and in Working Draft state at the W3C. Ian Hickson of Google, Inc. is the editor of HTML5.[2]

The HTML5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2007. This working group published the First Public Working Draft of the specification on January 22, 2008.[3] The specification is an ongoing work, and is expected to remain so for many years, although parts of HTML5 are going to be finished and implemented in browsers before the whole specification reaches final Recommendation status.[4]

According to the W3C timetable, it is estimated that HTML5 will reach W3C Recommendation by late 2010. However, the First Public Working Draft estimate was missed by 8 months, and Last Call and Candidate Recommendation were expected to be reached in 2008,[5] but as of April 2010 HTML5 is still at Working Draft stage in the W3C.[6] HTML5 has been at Last Call in the WHATWG since October 2009.[7]

Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012, and W3C Recommendation in the year 2022 or later.[8] However, many parts of the specification are stable and may be implemented in products:

Some sections are already relatively stable and there are implementations that are already quite close to completion, and those features can be used today (e.g. <canvas>).

— WHAT Working Group, When will HTML5 be finished?[8], FAQ

Markup

HTML
Comparisons

HTML5 introduces a number of new elements and attributes that reflect typical usage on modern Web sites. Some of them are semantic replacements for common uses of generic block (<div>) and inline (<span>) elements, for example <nav> (website navigation block) and <footer> (usually refer to bottom of web page or to last lines of html code). Other elements provide new functionality through a standardized interface, such as the <audio> and <video>[9] elements.[10]

Some deprecated elements from HTML 4.01 have been dropped, including purely presentational elements such as <font> and <center>, whose effects are achieved using Cascading Style Sheets. There is also a renewed emphasis on the importance of DOM scripting in Web behavior.

The HTML5 syntax is no longer based on SGML despite the similarity of its markup. It has, however, been designed to be backward compatible with common parsing of older versions of HTML. It comes with a new introductory line that looks like an SGML document type declaration, <!DOCTYPE html>, which enables standards-compliant rendering in all browsers that use "DOCTYPE sniffin'".

HTML5 also incorporates Web Forms 2.0, another WHATWG specification.

New APIs

In addition to specifying markup, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces (APIs).[11] Existing document object model (DOM) interfaces are extended and de facto features documented. There are also new APIs, such as:

Some of the new features are part of HTML5 mainly because there are no volunteers to split HTML5 and maintain separate specifications of these features.[12]

Differences from HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.x

The following is a cursory list of differences and some specific examples.

  • New parsing rules: oriented towards flexible parsing and compatibility; not based on SGML
  • Ability to use inline SVG and MathML in text/html
  • New elements: article, aside, audio, canvas, command, datalist, details, embed, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, keygen, mark, meter, nav, output, progress, rp, rt, ruby, section, source, summary, time, video
  • New types of form controls: dates and times, email, url, search
  • New attributes: ping (on a and area), charset (on meta), async (on script)
  • Global attributes (that can be applied for every element): id, tabindex, hidden, data-* (custom data attributes)
  • Forms will get support for PUT and DELETE methods too instead of just GET and POST (see Representational State Transfer for use cases)
  • Deprecated elements dropped: acronym, applet, basefont, big, center, dir, font, frame, frameset, isindex, noframes, s, strike, tt, u

Error handling

A HTML5 (text/html) browser will be flexible in handling incorrect syntax. HTML5 is designed so that old browsers can safely ignore new HTML5 constructs. In contrast to HTML 4.01, the HTML5 specification gives detailed rules for lexing and parsing, with the intent that different compliant browsers will produce the same result in the case of incorrect syntax.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ "[whatwg] WHAT open mailing list announcement". Lists.whatwg.org. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  2. ^ "HTML 5: A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML (Editor's Draft)". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
  3. ^ "HTML 5: A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  4. ^ "When will HTML5 be finished?". WHATWG. WHATWG Wiki. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  5. ^ "HTML Working Group". W3.org. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  6. ^ "HTML 5". W3.org. 2009-08-25. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  7. ^ "[whatwg] HTML5 at Last Call (at the WHATWG)". Lists.whatwg.org. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  8. ^ a b "When will HTML5 be finished?". FAQ. WHAT Working Group. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  9. ^ Introduction to HTML5 video
  10. ^ IBM Developer Works New elements in HTML5: Structure and semantics
  11. ^ HTML5 differences from HTML4 – APIs W3C
  12. ^ Hickson, Ian (2008-10-27). "HTML5 Specification – List of sections and corresponding work estimates". public-html@w3.org (Mailing list). Retrieved 2008-12-10. {{cite mailing list}}: External link in |mailinglist= (help); Unknown parameter |mailinglist= ignored (|mailing-list= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "FAQ – WHATWG Wiki". WHATWG. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HTML5&oldid=357002205"