HTML5 Is Done Evolving
October 28, 2014 by Dave Haynes
The really technical stuff is here, but the doofus version that suits me much better is that the W3C organization that sets HTML development standards globally published its Recommendation of HTML5 — the final version of the HTML5, years after it was first introduced.
All the cool stuff that you never used to be able to do in a browser – even build your own videos – is now part of the HTML5 feature set.
“Today we think nothing of watching video and audio natively in the browser, and nothing of running a browser on a phone,” web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee, the W3C’s director, said in a statement. “We expect to be able to share photos, shop, read the news, and look up information anywhere on any device. Though they remain invisible to most users, HTML5 and the Open Web Platform are driving these growing user expectations.”
HTML5 brings to the Web video and audio tracks without needing plugins; programmatic access to a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which is useful for rendering graphs, game graphics, or other visual images on the fly; native support for scalable vector graphics (SVG) and math (MathML); annotations important for East Asian typography (Ruby); features to enable accessibility of rich applications; and much more.
The HTML5 test suite, which includes over 100,000 tests and continues to grow, is strengthening browser interoperability. Learn more about the Test the Web Forward community effort.
With today’s publication of the Recommendation, software implementers benefit from Royalty-Free licensing commitments from over sixty companies under W3C’s Patent Policy. Enabling implementers to use Web technology without payment of royalties is critical to making the Web a platform for innovation.
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