Learn HTML5. Introduction.

HTML5

It is the fifth revision of the HTML standard (created in 1990 and standardized as HTML 4) and, as of December 2012, is a candidate recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Its core aims have been to improve the language with support for the latest multimedia while keeping it easily readable by humans and consistently understood by computers and devices (web browsers, parsers, etc.). HTML5 is intended to subsume not only HTML 4, but also XHTML 1 and DOM Level 2 HTML.

HTML5 offers new features (elements, attributes, event handlers, and APIs) for easier web application development and more sophisticated form handling. The HTML5 specification is based on HTML 4.01 Strict, but unlike previous HTML Recommendations, HTML5 does not use a Document Type Definition (DTD). Instead, it uses the Document Object Model (DOM, the "tree" formed by a document's structure) as its basis rather than a particular set of syntax rules. It also differs from previous recommendations in that it includes detailed instructions for how browsers should handle malformed and legacy markup.

Writing HTML5

You can write HTML5 pages using the same software you use to write HTML pages. That can be as simple as a lowly text editor, like Notepad (on Windows) or TextEdit (on Mac). Many current design tools (like Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web) have templates that let you quickly create new HTML5 documents.

However, the basic structure of an HTML5 page is so simple that you can use any web editor to create one, even if your web editor wasn't specifically designed for HTML5.

Viewing HTML5

Which browsers support HTML5? HTML5 is really a collection of independent standards. Some of it is already supported; some of it won't be supported for several years (and may never be).

All the rest falls somewhere in the middle—which means that HTML5 works in some versions of some browsers.
Here are some browsers that support some significant portion of HTML5 without requiring workarounds:
• Internet Explorer 9 and later
• Firefox 3.5 and later
• Google Chrome 8 and later
• Safari 4 and later
• Opera 10.5 and later
Support improves with later releases. For example, Firefox 5 has far better HTML5 support than Firefox 3.5.

<< Learn HTML. Elements

Html5. Global structure >>