Thoughts on web development and technologies by Peter Gasston
HTML 5 in 2010?
The W3C have announced that they have relaunched activity on HTML:
After the publication of HTML 4… W3C set forth to turn HTML into an XML-based format, called XHTML, due to the benefits of XML formats. The first full XHTML Recommendation was issued in early 2000. But due to the significant legacy of Web content that is some variant of HTML, traditional browser vendors moved slowly to adopt XHTML. This, in turn, has meant little motivation for content developers to adopt XHTML for the traditional desktop environment. Leaders in the Web developer and design communities therefore urged W3C to renew its commitment to HTML…
W3C is pleased to relaunch work on HTML with strong support from its Members and more staff resources (including people and hardware). W3C has tailored the HTML Working Group Charter to enable active participation from browser vendors, applications designers, and content developers, whose joint participation is key to the success of the future HTML.
The W3C HTML Working Group’s page says that we can expect a recommendation to be published in 2010, with a first working draft in July of this year. That’s pretty impressive pace by the W3C’s standards!
It’s still too early to see what might be in the new draft, but according to their charter:
The HTML Working Group will actively pursue convergence with WHATWG.
So you might want to read the WHATWG Web Applications 1.0 (HTML 5) proposal in order to get some advance notice of possible changes.
I have to say, I think this is exciting news. HTML is in need of freshening up, and XHTML 2 was too different to succeed in the short term. I’d expect that many browser manufacturers will begin (or, indeed, have already begun) to implement the future recommendations as soon as possible.