HTML 5 and XHTML 2

While the intention of both HTML V5 and XHTML V2 is to improve on the existing versions, the approaches the developers chose to make those improvements is very different. And with differing philosophies come distinct results. For the first time in many years, the direction of upcoming browser versions is uncertain. Uncover the bigger picture behind the details of these two standards.

de Jonge, Adriaan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML 5 Timeline

Firefox 2.0.0.10 broke its implementation of the HTML5 canvas element and guess what, the world noticed. Actual websites started breaking because they relied on the canvas functionality to work. The point is that we expect implementations of HTML5 to happen way before the fifteen year mark. In fact, the fifteen year mark includes having all features at least implemented in two different (shipping) products in the same way with the additional requirement that they have a decent amount of market penetration. This means that when the specification finally makes it to W3C Recommendation it has already proven itself.

van Kesteren, Anne. annevankesteren.nl (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

New Elements in HTML 5

HTML 5 introduces new elements to HTML for the first time since the last millennium. New structural elements include aside, figure, and section. New inline elements include time, meter, and progress. New embedding elements include video and audio. New interactive elements include details, datagrid, and command.

Harold, Elliotte Rusty. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

A Preview of HTML 5

HTML 4 has been around for nearly a decade now, and publishers seeking new techniques to provide enhanced functionality are being held back by the constraints of the language and browsers.

Hunt, Lachlan. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Can the alt Attribute Be Omitted Without Hurting Accessibility?

In the current editor’s draft of the HTML 5 specification, the alt attribute for images is no longer required. I am not convinced that this is a good idea.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>HTML5

Another Look at HTML 5

It has become evident to me that some of my previous comments about HTML 5 and what is going on in the HTML Working Group are the result of misunderstanding and overreacting on my part. I no longer think things are quite as bad.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Is HTML 5 a Slippery Slope?

Tommy Olsson comments on the possibility of backwards compatibility and standardised error handling being bad for overall code quality.

Olsson, Tommy. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Improve Your Forms Using HTML 5!

HTML hasn't really been updated since HTML version 4 was released back in 1998. However, the WHATWG community has been working on HTML since 2004 and this will hopefully result in some much needed improvements. This article shows some of the new functionality of the proposed form chapter of HTML5: Web Forms 2.

Van Kesteren, Anne. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Forms>HTML5

Semantics in HTML 5

HTML 5, the W3C’s recently redoubled effort to shape the next generation of HTML, has, over the last year or so, taken on considerable momentum. It is an enormous project, covering not simply the structure of HTML, but also parsing models, error-handling models, the DOM, algorithms for resource fetching, media content, 2D drawing, data templating, security models, page loading models, client-side data storage, and more. There are also revisions to the structure, syntax, and semantics of HTML.

Allsopp, John. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>HTML5

The 'Video' Element

The 'video' element is brand new in HTML 5 and allows you to, get this, play a movie in your website! The data of this element is supposed to be video but it might also have audio or images associated with it. Of course, this will only work in a few browsers: Safari 3.1+, Firefox 3.5+, and latest builds of Opera (oh, and potentially the next release of Chrome).

HTML 5 Doctor (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>HTML5

Understanding 'aside'

HTML 5 offers a new element to mark additional information that can enhance an article but isn’t necessarily key to understanding it. However, in the interpretation of 'aside' there lies confusion as to how it can be used, and with that there is demand for the Doctor to step up and clear the air. In this article I will look at what 'aside' was created for, including sample uses and how not to use this useful, misunderstood element.

HTML 5 Doctor (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

The 'header' Element

Recently, we have seen a growing interest in HTML 5 and it’s adoption by web professionals. Within the HTML 5 specfication we can see that there have been a significant number of new tags added, one of these the

Yes, You Can Use HTML 5 Today!

The blogosphere was jerked into excitement when Google gave a sneak preview of its new service, Google Wave. Only the select few have an account, but there’s an 80-minute video about it on YouTube for the rest of us. The service is an HTML 5 app, and so HTML 5 has gone from being too far away to care about to today’s hot topic.

Lawson, Bruce. SitePoint (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML 5: Now or Never?

Here at SitePoint, we have started thinking about HTML 5, and whether or not the time is right to publish a book about it. To help us decide, we asked a number of web luminaries what they thought. Their answers were both varied and interesting. Take a look and decide for yourself: is it time you started learning about HTML 5?

Yank, Kevin. SitePoint (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

A Whole Lotta HTML5 Love

With the flurry of HTML5 tweets this past month, I felt it was somewhat easier to park some of them in a blog post. Retweeting was adding to the confusion for a non-HTML5 person like me.

STC AccessAbility SIG (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Misunderstanding Markup: XHTML 2/HTML 5 Comic Strip

Now that the development of XHTML 2 is discontinued, should we stick to XHTML 1.0 or move forward to HTML 5 or better prefer the old HTML 4? Let’s set things straight once and for all. In this post we are trying to clear up the confusion, explain what is what and describe what markup language you can use for your web-sites.

Colbow, Brad. Smashing (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Why is HTML Suddenly Interesting?

Today the HTML conversation is reborn. Standards development around HTML seems to actually have a chance of influencing user experience in the browser, and Microsoft itself is participating in the HTML 5 conversation despite still holding roughly two-thirds of the browser market. While Microsoft's market share is only slowly eroding, developer mindshare seems to have shifted decisively to the band of WHATWG upstarts, Microsoft's competitors.

St. Laurent, Simon. O'Reilly and Associates (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

How to Draw with HTML 5 Canvas

Among the set of goodies in the HTML 5 specification is Canvas which is a way to programmatically draw using JavaScript. We’ll explore the ins and outs of Canvas in this article, demonstrating what is possible with examples and links.

Newman, Jamie. Carsonified (2009). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>HTML5

Why Apple is Betting on HTML 5: A Web History

To get an accurate picture of why HTML 5 matters and how its adoption will change the future of the web and software in general, you have to take a look at the squabbling drama of contention that HTML 5 is emerging from as industry rivals work to achieve a new level of consensus on how the web should work.

Dilger, Daniel Eran. AppleInsider (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Video Introduction to HTML 5

Are you interested in HTML 5 and what's coming down the pipeline but haven't had time to read any articles yet? We've put together an educational Introduction to HTML 5 video that goes over many of the major aspects of this new standard. In the video we also crack open the HTML 5 YouTube Video prototype to show you some of the new HTML 5 tags, such as nav, article, etc.

Google (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Get Ready for HTML 5

Ready or not, here it comes. Despite the confusion surrounding its evolution, real-world HTML 5 is right around the corner. Longtime ALA contributor J. David Eisenberg returns to get us all up to speed on the markup we’re about to be writing.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Detecting HTML5 Features

You may well ask: “How can I start using HTML5 if older browsers don’t support it?” But the question itself is misleading. HTML5 is not one big thing; it is a collection of individual features. So you can’t detect “HTML5 support,” because that doesn’t make any sense. But you can detect support for individual features, like canvas, video, or geolocation.

Dive Into HTML5 (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Let’s Call It a Draw(ing Surface)

HTML 5 defines the CANVAS element as “a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas which can be used for rendering graphs, game graphics, or other visual images on the fly.” A canvas is a rectangle in your page where you can use JavaScript to draw anything you want.

Dive Into HTML5 (2009). Articles>Web Design>Graphic Design>HTML5

HTML 5 Differences from HTML 4

HTML 5 defines the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web, HTML. "HTML 5 differences from HTML 4" describes the differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5 and provides some of the rationale for the changes.

W3C (2009). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Adventures in Web 3.0: Part 1 - HTML 5

With HTML5 markup in place I started wondering about how CSS would affect things. The first thing I discovered was that Firefox doesn't have much in the way of default styling for the new elements - so setting background colours doesn't have much effect until I added some default styles.

Crowther, Rob. Boog Design (2009). Articles>Web Design>HTML>HTML5