Mobile HTML5

Chapter 2. Upgrading to HTML5

HTML takes a few hours to learn and years of experience and discussion to master. Yes, most software engineers, designers, and even large numbers of high school students claim to know HTML, but they likely know only a few elements, and likely use those few elements incorrectly.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover many of the sectioning elements of HTML5. By the time you’re done reading this chapter, you should have a very good understanding of the semantics of HTML5. I can’t teach you everything about HTML in three chapters. Truthfully, I am still learning HTML—and not just because HTML5 is still an unfinished spec. With the specifications being incomplete, there will likely still be several changes. But don’t worry about that either. Likely, what has been implemented in browsers will stay the same with just some nuanced differences.

I hope that in addition to learning about the various elements, their attributes, their semantic meaning, and their purpose, you take from this an awareness that you know less about HTML than you thought: the more you learn about HTML, the more you realize how much more there is to learn.

We’re going to cover elements, briefly. While a chapter could be written about each element, we do have a lot of ground to cover in a few not-so-short chapters. We’ll cover enough for you to know how to use each element, and for you to at least know what you don’t know.

The first thing to know is that there is no space ...