Hi,
Tim Berners-Lee announced the W3C's new plan for HTML and the Working
Groups this morning [1].
From what I was told last night and read in the announcement this
morning, the work on HTML will be officially split (though it has been
unofficially for the past 2 years anyway). AIUI, the new HTML WG will
effectively carry on with the WHATWG to develop (X)HTML 5 and the new
XHTML2 WG will continue to develop XHTML 2.0.
AFAICT, what this effectively means is that there will be 2 official,
yet competing, HTML languages that are completely incompatible with each
other.
* (X)HTML 5: Designed from the outset to be an evolutionary step up from
HTML4/XHTML1, with backwards compatibility in mind.
* XHTML 2: Designed as a revolutionary, backwards incompatible, fresh start.
Prior to this, I was hoping that the two camps would find a way to work
together towards their common goals to produce one specification.
However, it now appears that the camps will diverge even further. I've
asked for confirmation about whether or not that's true, but it appears
to be from the limited information I have.
There will also be a new Forms WG focussing on XForms, and some task
force to somehow bridge the gap between them and Web Forms 2.0
(extensions to HTML 4 forms). However, information is scarce and it's
unclear how that will work and what I know about it is only speculation.
I think it's too early to draw any major conclusions from this news,
particularly with regards to how this will affect authors, but my first
impressions are certainly not thrilling. IMHO, there is no room for
competing standards and I assume one of them will inevitably die, with
the winner determined by market forces.
Anyway, does anyone else have any thoughts or speculation about this?
[1] http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/166
--
Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/
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