What will HTML5 bring?

January 8th, 2010 by Nikhil

HTML5 is still a draft. As I write, Work on HTML 5, which commenced in 2004, is still being given shape by a joint effort between the W3C HTML WG and the WHATWG.   The word is that the next gen HTML will have  enhancements and  features, which would new structure and semantics , form controls, APIs, multimedia tags etc..

In simple English … what would it mean to  us UI developers …

  • There will addition of some structural tags  viz.  <article>, <section>, <header>, <aside>, and <nav>, which would replace the majority of <div>s used on a web page, making your pages a bit more semantic, but more importantly, easier to read.
    Hey! Just imagine the effort saved in finding that one missing close DIV tag.
    e.g.
<body>
  <header>...</header>
  <nav>...</nav>
  <article>
    <section>
      ...
    </section>
  </article>
  <aside>...</aside>
  <footer>...</footer>
</body>

Instead of

<body>
  <div id="header">...</div>
  <div id="nav">...</div>
  <div class="article">
    <div class="section">
      ...
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="aside">...</div>
  <div id="footer">...</div>
</body>
  • With the advent of  audio and video content like YouTube, the use of embedded multimedia on the webpage has increaded by fold. Taking this into account , Now the plan is to add native support for embedding video and audio into the browser itself,  hence allow users to play, pause, stop, seek, and adjust volume using the builtin DOM APIs for scripts to control the playback.

e.g.

<video poster="poster.jpg">
    <source src="video.3gp" type="video/3gpp"
    media="handheld">
        <source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
<audio>
  <source src="music.oga" type="audio/ogg">
  <source src="music.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
  • Better-defined semantic roles for existing elements  for eg. <strong> and <em> might now actually have different  meanings i.e.  they will behave differently.

There are many more changes/upgrades to the newer version … Will keep updating this post as I come accross any interesting useful ones …. Watch this space

This document may not provide accurate information as the HTML 5 specification is still actively in development. When in doubt, always check the HTML 5 specification here.

Tags:


get ExpressingIT News by Email Subscribe to ExpressingIT by Email |  Follow Me on Twitter


One Response to “What will HTML5 bring?”

  1. Re-Cycling CSS : A Look At CSS Frameworks | Expressing IT Says:

    […] tags  viz.  <article>, <section>, <header>, <aside>, and <nav> [What will HTML5 bring?].  Even with HTML 4(or lower),  it is best to name standard sections of your page consistanly […]


Leave a Reply

 Subscribe to ExpressingIT RSS
get ExpressingIT News by Email Subscribe to ExpressingIT by Email
 Follow Me on Twitter