What Is HTML5?

HTML5 is the newest hyper text markup language for websites from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The first draft was made public in 2008, but not much happened until 2011. In 2011, HTML5 was released and people started writing about it and using it, but the support in different browsers was still poor. Today all major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, IE) offer HTML5 support, therefore the newest HTML technology can be used at its best today.

The official logo of HTML5

HTML5 works with CSS3 and is still in development. W3C plans to release a stable version next year, but it still looks like this is a long shot. Since its release, HTML5 has been in continuous development, with the W3C adding more and more impressive features, therefore it seems quite unlikely that HTML5′s development will end soon, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

HTML5 is the successor of HTML 4.01, released for the first time in 1999. The internet has changed significantly since 1999 and it seemed like the creation of HTML5 was necessary. The new markup language was developed based on pre-set standards:

• New features should be based on HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript.
• The need for external plugins (like Flash) needs to be reduced.
• Error handling should be easier than in previous versions.
• Scripting has to be replaced by more markup.
• HTML5 should be device-independent.
• The development process should be visible to the public .