Special Edition Using Microsoft Expression Web 2

Appendix B. The Future of Web Development

<feature><title>In this appendix</title>

• Changing Standards

• Emerging Technologies

• Lagniappe: Understanding and Using RSS

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Changing Standards

Computer technologies are short-lived by nature. As soon as a technology starts maturing, it’s almost inevitably replaced by a new technology. Given that kind of environment, HTML’s longevity is quite amazing. In fact, HTML has been with us since 1990, and it wasn’t until 2000 that a new recommendation was proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Note

Contrary to what you often hear from Web designers, the W3C does not issue standards. It proposes recommendations. Historically, this has been a thorn in the side of Web designers, but we’re now starting ...