Authoring HTML5 - Frequently Asked Questions
What is HTML5?
HTML5 is a new version of HTML4 and XHTML1. HTML5 makes JavaScript-based applications running in the browser more functional by defining new APIs for the DOM. HTML5 can be written as HTML or as XML (also called XHTML5).
Who is designing HTML5?
HTML5 is primarily designed by the top five browser vendors (Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, Apple and Opera).
What does 5 stands for in HTML5?
HTML5 has done away with version numbers from HTML. Going forward, HTML will always be a work in progress. Therefore, the "5" in HTML5 does not mean version 5 of HTML. Instead, 5 refers to the snapshot of the latest work on HTML.
When will HTML5 be released?
Although HTML5 is defined in one specification, different features of HTML5 are in different stages of maturity. This means that some features of HTML5 are ready for implementation while others are still in the design phase and may change.
When can I start using HTML5?
New features are usually good for developers. Just be aware that authoring tools do not support some features of HTML5 now, and that other features may never get supported. This is important to understand, since content authored by hand now may at some point in the future get processed or edited by an authoring tool in unforeseen ways. For example, using new markup features such as <hgroup> will break HTML Tidy or the many authoring tools that contain HTML Tidy:
<hgroup><h1>Star Trek II</h1><h2>The Wrath of Khan</h2></hgroup>
HTML Tidy error:
Error: <hgroup> is not recognized!
This document contains errors that must be fixed before using HTML Tidy to generate tidied up version.
Other HTML5 features such as permitting hyperlinks around block elements, as seen the following markup, may cause unexpected results in authoring tools:
<a href="news.htm"><h1>News</h1></a>
Can I author HTML5 with XStandard?
New HTML5 elements can be used in XStandard. These new elements will be treated as custom elements. See CustomInlineElements, CustomBlockElements and CustomEmptyElements properties in the API reference to define custom elements.
Features that change the rules of HTML such as hyperlinks containing block elements are not supported in XStandard.
Will XStandard support user interfaces for new HTML5 features?
At XStandard we are committed to supporting new HTML features that become widely used and that are feasible to implement.