Draft of HTML 5 Hints at a Brave New Web
The release of a draft specification for HTML 5 marks another important step toward creating the next version of HTML, the hypertext markup language that powers the web. This week, the HTML Working Group, which is the arm of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) charged with updating HTML, published the first official draft of HTML 5, which will eventually supersede HTML 4.
The web has grown and changed in remarkable ways since the release of HTML 4 in 1997. No longer are sites just a loose collection static pages joined together by some hyperlinks. The web is now Ajax-powered and full of video, audio and interactive widgets. HTML 5 is an attempt to give developers a way to create pages which harness the newest technologies but still work in any browser on any platform — be it a traditional desktop, a mobile phone, a game console or (one day) even your toaster.
HTML 5 presents a major change from HTML 4 and it will still be a long time before you’re likely to see HTML 5 markup in your browser, but the release of the draft is an important step on the path to a new, more media-aware syntax.
HTML 5 seeks to revamp the language behind the web, taking advantage of Ajax and other “active” technologies, while at the same time discarding many elements that have fallen out of use over time.
For those interested in the gritty details of what changes HTML will bring to the table, the W3C has posted a highlights page which covers the main differences between the current HTML 4 and the upcoming HTML 5.
Among the significant changes in the draft specification:
- Support for RSS feeds within the
page markup - New tags for embedding media like audio or video files
- Tags like
<article>or<dialog>, which can be used to markup items like the main body of a blog post or the transcript of a conversation respectively - The
<canvas>tag, which can be used to render moving graphics like data visualizations or games - New tools for building better forms and user menus
The group is trimming the fat, too. Frames and iframes [correction: iframes are part of HTML 5, frames, frameset and noframes have all been removed] have been left out of HTML 5. They were rejected because, according the W3C, “their usage affected usability and accessibility for the end user in a negative way.” But it’s important to keep in mind that just because something like frames are being phased out of the actual spec doesn’t mean browsers won’t still be able to display them. It just means that documents using them will never be valid HTML 5.
In fact, given that most browsers have very little support for HTML 5 at this point, it will still be quite a while before HTML 5 is something web authors can actually use. Right now Opera has the most complete HTML 5 support of the major browsers, with the others implementing only small bits for the time being.
And don’t expect browsers to jump on HTML 5 right now. As long as the specification remains a draft, it’s therefore subject to change. As Tim Berners-Lee, author of the first version of HTML and W3C Director, says in the press release, "To integrate the input of so many people is hard work, as is the challenge of balancing stability with innovation, pragmatism with idealism."
In short, while the release is an import one and the future looks bright for web developers, HTML 5 still has a long way to go before it’s done.
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