Should I Start to Use HTML5? Theory & Fact

Should I start to use HTML5? Theory & Fact

Well, I just wanted to touch on a huge new topic in the web design world. You guessed it, HTML5. I’m extremely excited about it and believe that in a couple more years it will eventually have some popularity as far as total support. This is how it works. Right now most new major browsers have various support features for this web altering markup. In a perfect world every user would update their browser version as soon as a stable version was released. This is clearly not the case and web designers have to deal with this issue. Right now at best your users will hopefully be using a browser version that’s less than 5 years old. Surprisingly this is a major factor for the web designer/developer.

Have no fear we are developing as humans and on the web. HTML5 really will be an amazing upgrade to our online experience.

The Answer

Here’s my answer to this posts title question. Yes, start using HTML5 for your projects. Beware of using HTML5 markup that’s not supported in most of the major browsers though. To be honest with you, I’ve actually just decided to start using it. The only reason I have not started until now is because now I have to update and integrate HTML5 into my knowledge. It’s really not that big of a deal though. They have just deprecated some tags and introduced some new ones to be implemented. Who are they you must be thinking? They are the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). What they have achieved is nothing less than pure awesomeness. These are the organizations that decide the future of the web. HTML5 will soon be the new web standard for HTML and if you’re the type of designer/developer who adheres to standards, it would be a good idea to start now.

What’s New in HTML5

This is the exciting aspect of HTML5. Here are a few of the additions and benefits that come along with implementing this future web standard.

• New Attributes
• New Elements
• Video and Audio
• 2D/3D Graphics
• Full CSS3 Support
• Local Storage
• Local SQL Database
• Web Applications

The HTML5 markup language is still a work in progress and I will warn you once again. Beware of using tags that are not widely supported yet. Most of the major browsers do support many of the new markup tags. Check on the support. I have included a link below to W3C Schools. This site is a must have for your education arsenal. Knowledge is power so remember to do your research before using new HTML5 elements. The teams at W3C Schools are really here to make the web a universally standard compliant place.

Check out W3C Schools (a must use site for all your development education)
W3C Schools (Don’t be a fool use W3CSchool)

Guidelines That HTML5 Follows

Here are a few of the guidelines that the W3C and the WHATWG groups followed when developing this soon to be standard for the web. HTML5’s goals to integrate AJAX type API’s (Application Program Interface) are really going to be the next step in the webs evolution. This really is an exciting time for the web and this is why:

• New features, elements and markup were to be based on HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript create markup to replace scripting
• Device independent
• Smarter error handling
• Eliminate and reduce the need for external plugins (such as flash)

Here’s a link below to the W3C’s official HTML5 page.
HTML5 W3C

This concludes another informative blog post of mine. Please sign up to follow my blog and please give me some feedback. Thanks for your participation I appreciate it.

Brandon M. Fowler
brandonfowler01@gmail.com
brandon@darkstardigitalpublishing.com