W3C HTML Working Group has recently released HTML 5 working draft. This is a very important step forward; the same is available for review and comment at http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-html5-20080122/
The new standard addresses the need of web application developers in more pro-active way:
- Basic template facility has been implemented with facility to repeat elements
- There are also new elements for navigation, headers, footers, figures, and dialog
- Client-side persistent storage functionality (JavaScript APIs for key/value pairs & embedded SQL databases)
- Support for server-sent events, which will facilitate persistent connections to remote data sources
Some old features like frames have been removed.
Let us see how soon new browsers start supporting these new features of HTML 5. Currently the Opera browser has the best support (though it does not support all features) for HTML 5.
Footnote:
There is an overall trend to make HTML more developer friendly so that complex web applications are developed as per W3C standards and are compatible on different browsers on different mediums. With Bill Gate’s prediction coming in about different shapes and sizes of computers in this decade which will make computers more intuitive (like the table PC), this seems to be moving in the right direction.
So let’s think, how your website will look and take shape (as per device specific browser compatibility) when displayed on a coffee table as the people sitting around it mumble the name of your company!
Abhishek
