There’s been an increasing amount of noise being made about HTML 5 HTML5 and A List Apart is featuring an article by J. David Eisenberg on preparing for this latest incarnation of the venerable markup language. If nothing else, the article helps clear up any confusion as to what HTML5 is and how it relates to previous versions of HTML and XHTML:
HTML 4.0 (the markup language we all know and love) is based on a “rulebook” called SGML… XHTML 1.0 and 1.1 are based on a rulebook called XML…
HTML 5 defines a markup language that isn’t based on either rulebook, but that can be written in either “HTML form” (or serialization, as the spec calls it) or “XHTML form.”
Which is good news for those still using HTML 4.01 and everyone who migrated to the previous new and shiny web standard, XHTML 1.0/1.1. Personally, I’m more excited about the input element data validation attributes and regular expression support. Goodbye, excessive JavaScript routines.
In other HTML5 news, A List Apart founder Jeffrey Zeldman writes about loving HTML5 and the HTML5 Super Friends have released a guide to HTML5 hiccups:
HTML5 is the next generation of web markup, and the first web markup language created in the era of web applications. While we view many aspects of it quite favorably, we believe the specification could benefit from a few changes and clarifications…
It is refreshing to see this sort of pragmatic adoption and development of a ‘new’ technology.
