Welcome back to "This Week in HTML 5," where I'll try to summarize the major activity in the ongoing standards process in the WHATWG and W3C HTML Working Group.
Ian Hickson (the HTML 5 editor) gave an interview about HTML 5 in which he reiterated his goal of having two independent, complete, interoperable implementations of HTML 5 by 2022. (By contrast, HTML 4.0 was "finalized" 11 years ago but still doesn't have two independent, complete, interoperable implementations.) This led to a mini-firestorm among bloggers who misunderstood "2022" as "the date when I can start using HTML 5 features." It bears repeating that the "2022" date has no significance at all for web developers. Most browser vendors are actively involved in HTML 5, several browsers are already shipping HTML 5 features, and developers who are holding their breath until 2022 are going to find themselves seriously behind the curve.
On that note, Brenton Strine asks a very good question: "Is there some place that documents the parts of HTML 5 that are already up and running? Can I use <canvas> or <video>? In which browsers? What other tags can I use? What other fancy HTML 5 stuff can I do today in 2008?" On the video front, Mozilla will be shipping Ogg Theora support in Firefox 3.1. (You can read more about why Ogg matters.) Last year, Opera released experimental builds with Ogg Theora support, and they now have video-enabled builds on 3 platforms. The Wikimedia Foundation has a few Theora-encoded videos you can watch.
Tune in next week for another exciting episode of "This Week in HTML 5."
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 15:02 and is filed under Weekly Review.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I think it may be worth adding a link to the Implementations in Web browsers page in your post, as it’s probably the best answer to Brenton Strine’s question about browser implementation of HTML5.
Self-link, but I have a demo of a page using the new page structuring tags (header, footer, nav, aside) that works on all modern browsers, plus IE 6 using the Javascript shiv.
September 23rd, 2008 at 15:46
Thanks for the post!
I think it may be worth adding a link to the Implementations in Web browsers page in your post, as it’s probably the best answer to Brenton Strine’s question about browser implementation of HTML5.
September 23rd, 2008 at 16:05
Thanks a lot for the link to ishtml5readyyet.com, Mark! Those expert comments are just way too funny. You made my day, you really did!
September 23rd, 2008 at 20:44
Definitely ready. Zero days to go.
September 24th, 2008 at 08:31
You should check out why HTML5 will change the web and why it won’t
I think it’s a waste of time given the timeline.
September 24th, 2008 at 18:22
There is a good sized list of Theora-encoded online video examples, in addition to the Wikimedia project you mentioned here, on the Xiph.org Wiki,
In regards to the HTML5 “video” tag Firefox 3.1, the nightly developer build already has the feature roughly functional.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:38
Self-link, but I have a demo of a page using the new page structuring tags (header, footer, nav, aside) that works on all modern browsers, plus IE 6 using the Javascript shiv.
See http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2009/html-5-elements-test/