The movements around discussing, designing and implementing HTML5 are gaining real momentum now, and it was definitely one of the big buzzwords at the summer web conferences this year. I’ve started implementing one or two small pieces of the spec on production sites, and am looking forward to using some of the long-awaited functionality like the form-validation work that’s in there, as well as the offline storage that’s already been relatively widely deployed (well, by Google, at least: Cache pattern for offline HTML5 web applications). So I’ve been monitoring the specification documents a little more closely than usual, as one of the important things about working in some of the more developmental areas is knowing that the spec is likely to change.
As part of that, I’ve rounded up here some of the recent linkage around the HTML5 spec:
Zeldman
Zeldman, publisher of A List Apart, founder of Happy Cog Studios and “King of Web Standards” (according to Business Week), approves of the direction HTML5 is taking, although he does have a few issues with the spec. But, he says, “…many things we had previously considered serious problems were fixable issues related to language.”
“Half of standards making is minutia; the other half is politics.”
http://www.zeldman.com/2009/08/31/loving-html5/
HTML5 Super Friends
Zeldman’s friends like the direction of HTML5 too, and are happy to publicly say so, as part of the HTML5 Super Friends group:
http://www.zeldman.com/superfriends/
Although some people have griped that it would have been more conformant to use the proper channels to air some of these views, I agree with the group that the more public support and high-profile discussion we can get around the spec the better — it’ll eventually all filter down to the WHATWG mailing list anyway.
“We, the undersigned, wish to declare our support for the direction in which the HTML5 specification is heading. Its introduction of a limited set of additional semantic elements, its instructions on how to handle failure, and its integration of application development tools hold the promise of richer and more consistent user experiences, faster prototyping, and increased human and machine semantics.”
The HTML5 Super Friends have a list of technical hiccups and problems in the spec. Positively, they have also proposed solutions:
http://www.zeldman.com/superfriends/guide/
The Spec
Just the markup parts of the spec, omiting much of the browser implementation stuff
http://dev.w3.org/html5/markup/
and a one-page version
http://dev.w3.org/html5/markup/spec.html
Nicole Sullivan/Yahoo!
Nicole Sullivan of Yahoo!, and also a Super Friend, gives her thoughts on the HTML5 spec, with particular focus on bringing Standardistas and JavaScripters together
“It should be possible to do more with less javascript. I’d like to see browser support for common aspects of web pages as well as web applications. Practically every site in the known universe has toggle blocks, tabs, carousels, or accordion menus. I’d like to seen native browser support and CSS styling, so that these element incur no particular performance cost.”
http://www.stubbornella.org/content/2009/08/31/html5-who-is-bad-enough-to-take-on-canvas/