Nice writeup David. I realize that W3C have big plans but both XHTML2 and HTML5 but they're 'working drafts' for more than 5 years... Personally, I think if HTML5 will be released in 3-4 years it will be very good. As for XHTML2 I think it'll take more than 5 years more... It makes me mad...
2007/1/27, liorean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
On 1/27/07, Paul Ross <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Is this a fork in the specs road or a "standards war" in the making? It > would be great to bounce this off the WSG cogniscienti and help me (and > maybe others?) get a grasp of what is going on here. W3C went too far in their ambitions with XHTML2. They decided to throw away the good with the bad and make a single, huge change to HTML (including a full replacement of the SGML/Tagsoup foundation by XML with draconian error handling) that is in many ways incompatible with current HTML. The result is a too time consuming process to produce a specification of a language that is so different that none of the current user agents for HTML, whether browsers, editors, spiders etc. can add it's features without major changes. XHTML2 if it were to get finished today it would be DOA as there's not a single browser and to my knowledge no editing tools that even considers supporting it at the moment. The fact that it's still a WD and nowhere near becoming a standard right now indeed makes it a bad idea for implementors currently. But in a future with browser and editor support for generic XML and custom XML applications that is much stronger than the current situation, XHTML2 might eventually displace HTML. You must understand, XHTML2 is a different language than HTML, it will compete with HTML - not a specific version of HTML such as HTML5 or HTML4.01, but HTML as a sloppy error recovered document language in general - as well as with XHTML for filling the same role, with the forced draconian error handling of XML and with different semantics from HTML/XHTML. HTML5 on the other hand is developed in an open process supported by the browser makers themselves (except Microsoft) and is meant to be an evolution of HTML rather than a replacement. It doesn't require major changes, it only adds on top of the current HTML standard. It tries to standardise things that were never standardised before such as parser error recovery. Parts of it are already implemented in several browsers. XHTML2 and HTML5 are not at the moment competitors. XHTML2 isn't on the horizon yet, but HTML5 is in sight. If anything, what's happening is that HTML5 will succeed HTML4.01 as the current HTML standard in a few years. When mature enough, XHTML2 may become an alternative to the then current HTML, whichever version that is. But XHTML2 has always been a whole new technology trying to replace HTML. HTML5 is instead an evolution, an upgrade, of an aging HTML specification. Oh, and HTML5 will probably become a W3C specification, if HTML WG and WhatWG cooperation works out: <uri:http://www.w3.org/2006/11/HTML-WG-charter.html> -- David "liorean" Andersson ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
-- Love and Light, Vladislav. ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
