Jul 17, 2009

HTML 5 specifies two variants of the same language, a "classic" HTML (text/html) variant known as HTML5 and an XHTML variant known as XHTML5. This is the first time that HTML and XHTML have been developed in parallel. HTML 5 was initially said to become a game-changer in Web application development, making obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX. Such applications would be made obsolete by specifying a standard video codec for all browsers to use. However, in July 2009, the editor of the burgeoning draft specification announced the dropping of the free software Ogg Theora codec, due to opposition from Apple, as well as the rival proprietary H.264 codec, due to opposition from other browser vendors. This means HTML 5 does not currently specify a common video codec for Web development.

The ideas behind HTML 5, originally referred to as Web Applications 1.0, were pioneered in 2004 by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG); HTML 5 incorporates Web Forms 2.0, another WHATWG specification. The HTML 5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the W3C in 2007. The working group published the First Public Working Draft of the specification on January 22, 2008. The specification is an ongoing work, and is expected to remain so for many years, although parts of HTML 5 are going to be finished and implemented in browsers before the whole specification reaches final Recommendation status. The editors are Ian Hickson of Google, Inc. and David Hyatt, Apple, Inc.

HTML 5 is the next major revision of HTML ("hypertext markup language"), the core markup language of the World Wide Web.