HTML 5
Sunday, December 21, 2008 10:37:56
I just started looking into HTML 5, the new version of the HTML specifications. This is the first change to the specs since version 4 in 1999. The goal of version 5 is to introduce new elements to streamline modern web development.
The designers wanted to make it easier to build web pages that are prevalent in today's web culture - blogs, multimedia, and things of that nature. To that end, they wanted to get rid of the majority of the "div" elements that make up the majority of most web pages, and replace them with more common-sense names, like "section", "article", and "nav". They also wanted to include a "video" and "audio" tag, to standardize the many different multimedia tags that currently exist. These changes are supposed to make it easier for web designers and developers, and easier for all kinds of standard and mobile browsers to display the content.
Frankly, I'm skeptical about many of these changes. There's a reason HTML 4 has been around so long - it works. Nested divs may not be pretty, but they are definitely well-known by web developers and programming frameworks, and they function in a predictable and consistent way. I worry that a totally new way of writing web pages will introduce a new wave of conformance and compliance issues - we're finally at the point where the majority of websites will function in all major browsers and operating systems, and all of these changes may just start the problem over again. With any luck, the major browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Konqueror, Opera, and the various mobile browsers) will all release new versions in all operating systems that handle the changes in a consistent manner, but based on what we've seen in the past, I wouldn't count on it. I'm expecting a new generation of "must be viewed in Internet Explorer" websites, which would be tragic for the open nature of the web.
HTML 5 is still just a draft, so I'm sure there will be plenty of changes before it's released. But it looks like it is an inevitable change, so we need to be prepared. With any luck, the major players in the web industry will work together to make this transition as smooth as possible.
Some links regarding HTML 5:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-html5/
http://www.w3.org/TR/html5-diff/
Tags: browser tech
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