Chapter 1. Introducing HTML5
If HTML were a movie, HTML5 would be its surprise twist.
HTML wasn’t meant to survive into the 21st century. The official web standards organization, called the W3C (short for World Wide Web Consortium), left HTML for dead way back in 1998. The W3C pinned its future plans on a modernized successor called XHTML. It took a group of disenfranchised rebels to resuscitate HTML and lay the groundwork for the features that you’ll explore in this book.
In this chapter, you’ll get the scoop on why HTML died, and how it came back to life. You’ll learn about HTML5’s philosophy and features, and you’ll consider the thorny issue of browser support. You’ll also get your first look at a bona fide HTML5 document—both in its simplest form, and as a more practical template that you can use as a starting point for any website.
The Story of HTML5
As you know, HTML is the language you use to write web pages. The basic idea of HTML—that you use elements to structure your content—hasn’t changed since the Web’s earliest days. In fact, even the oldest web pages still work perfectly well in the most modern web browsers (including several browsers that didn’t exist at the time, like Firefox and Chrome).
Being old and successful also carries some sizable risks—namely, everyone wants to replace you. In 1998, the W3C stopped working on HTML and attempted to improve it with an XML-powered successor called XHTML 1.0.
XHTML 1.0: Getting Strict
XHTML has most of the same syntax conventions ...
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