My (so far incomplete) HTML5 conformance checker has been Open Source / Free Software all along. However, due to the lack of a publicly-accessible version control system and due to numerous dependencies, the codebase hasn’t really been approachable.
This has now changed. The code is in an anonymously accessible CVS repository. There is also a single script that you can check out and run. The script will take care of downloading dependencies, building the software and running it. The instructions are on the about page.
Posted in Conformance Checking | 6 Comments »
Yesterday I held a presentation first for Creuna and then at Geek Meet about how HTML5 can be used today. The presentation was held in Swedish, and thus the slides are also available in Swedish.
The audience was mostly people who work with creating Web sites.
The discussion afterwards was interesting, but it wasn't recorded and I can't recall all the questions, unfortunately. These are the ones I can recall for now however:
- When will HTML5 actually be used by web developers?
- That's up to you.
- When will HTML5 be finished? What is the time line?
- That's up to how fast browser vendors implement it. The W3C HTML WG's roadmap says that HTML5 will advance to Recommendation by 2010, but I don't think it is realistic to think that browser vendors will have implemented everything completely and correctly by then. Around 15 years is more realistic, however that doesn't mean that you will have to wait 15 years until you can use HTML5.
- What is the advantage of using Web Forms 2.0 instead of using HTML4 forms + JavaScript?
- Less work for authors, and a better user experience for users. For instance, using an <input type=email> means that the author doesn't have to write JS to validate that it is a correct email address on the client side, and the user can pick emails from her address book (something that is impossible to implement with JS).
- Can you style the new form controls with CSS?
- They can probably be styled to the same extent that existing form controls can be styled. The icon in the email control is added by Opera when the form control is styled in some way (I just set a white background color to make the icon appear.)
- Can you style or modify the form's error messages?
- I'm not sure if you can style them, however you can change the text with JS or override the error reporting mechanism and use your own custom mechanism with JS.
- Is it true that HTML5 allows <font>?
- No, authors are not allowed to use <font>. However, WYSIWYG editors are allowed to emit <font>. WYSIWYG editors have to identify themselves with a <meta> element. This has received a lot of feedback though and might be changed.
- Do you need to be consistent with the use of /> vs. >?
- No.
- If you don't specify what version of HTML a document is, how can you redefine the behavior of an element later in HTML6?
- You don't. Browsers treat all HTML documents the same way, regardless of what version they declare themselves of being. A good example of this is <plaintext>, which has been deprecated since HTML 1.0, and is still supported in all browsers even if you declare an HTML4 doctype.
- Does HTML5 deprecate anything?
- Nothing is actually deprecated, however some things are forbidden altogether. For example the <u> element is not allowed to be used in conforming HTML5 documents. Browsers will continue to support it, however.
- Can html5lib parse any tag soup?
- Yes.
- Does that mean that you can convert any old HTML document to XML by feeding it through html5lib?
- Yes.
- Can you use the <svg> tag in HTML5?
- No, you can't use namespaces in HTML5. You can however embed SVG in XHTML5, since it's simply XML.
Posted in WHATWG | 2 Comments »
“5 > 2”. So now you know.
Posted in WHATWG | 6 Comments »
The conformance checker technology preview has been stuck in a time warp for a while, because I have been writing about it instead of working on it.
I am happy to report that the schema layer has now undergone a major update. (The Java parts have the same bugs as before. I have not forgotten about those. They just are not what this update is about.)
Posted in Conformance Checking, WHATWG | Comments Off on Conformance Checker Schema Layer Updated
The WHATTF have
today decided to reveal our plans for HTML6. The objective is to rewrite HTML5
based off the new ISO standard OOXML specification
as the serialization. The architectural model will adhere to the principle of
separation of semantics from presentation using RDF for semantics and XSL-FO
for presentation. An XML Schema will be provided for semantic validation.
Advantages:
- Over 90% market penetration (almost all, if not all, users own an Office
suite);
- Backwards compatibility. Since the new HTML6 will have OOXML as the serialization,
all OOXML implementations of today will be able to accurately render HTML6.
- Easy migration. Using a fairly simplistic XSLT style sheet, all developers
will be able to convert their HTML4 documents into HTML6, and vice-versa.
- Ready for the enterprise. Thanks to XSLT and GRDDL, mapping the over-the-wire
OOXML data to the RDF/XSL-FO model will be trivial. This approach gives the
best of both worlds: While OOXML provides compatibility for entry-level applications,
the RDF/XSL-FO-based architectural model integrates with the enterprise-strength
backplane for rich applications.
- WS-* integration. XML Schema provides for binding with SOAP-based intermediation
solutions.
We firmly believe that new HTML version should maintain backwards compatibility
and specification writers must not reinvent the wheel. We've come to the conclusion
that the OOXML specification adheres to these goals, making life easier for
everyone: users, developers, implementors and spec writers
More details will follow soon.
Posted in WHATWG | 7 Comments »