What is the future of the Internet? XHTML 2, HTML 5 or something else?

Question

I am confused by the discussion and promotion of both the new version of HTML and the new version of XHTML. Are they competitors? If so, then what is most likely to be an accepted future on the Internet? If not, what is the difference between non-competitive goals for each?

Should we have a BluRay / HDVD battle here? Is there ultimately any clear solution? I fear the future when browsers choose among the simplest and / or most striking features of each of them so that web developers try to figure out the lowest common denominator for any new web application.

Answer 1

HTML 5 is for web applications, while XHTML2 is for documents. From HTML 5 working draft :

XHTML2 defines a new HTML dictionary with the best features for hyperlinks, multimedia content, annotation of documents, rich metadata, declarative interactive forms and descriptions of the semantics of human literary works, such as poems and scientific articles.

However, it lacks elements to express the semantics of many non-documents that are often viewed on the Internet. For example, forum sites, auction sites, search engines, online stores, etc. Not very well matched to the document metaphor and not covered by XHTML2.

[HTML5] aims to extend HTML, so that it is also suitable in these contexts.

XHTML2 and [HTML5] use different namespaces and therefore can be implemented in the same XML processor.

Answer 2

XHTML2 and HTML5 are competing standards, both of which claim the next iteration of HTML.

It's pretty clear that HTML5 is going to win, as it supports browser providers.

Answer 3

XHTML2 is effectively dead. Since w3c (HTMLWG) accepted the WHATWG proposal, work stopped on XHTML2 (even before that, since the last working draft for xhtml2 was from 2006).

Answer 4

In my opinion, HTML5 will be the next dominant format. XHTML is just too inexorable for use in a web environment (you cannot crash a page with every small error ...).

HTML5 is becoming quite attractive for web developers - a formal specification for the CANVAS element, a native drag-and-drop API, a stand-alone storage API, a server notification API (push model), a formal API for editing content, and much more. If they can deliver even half of what they offer, this will be an important step for web applications.

Answer 5

From what I could find in a quick Google search, I would suggest that these are really competing standards. Both are trying to promote web technologies, but they are following different paths for this.

For a thorough enough consideration of this issue, you can look at these two links:

http://xhtml.com/en/future/x-html-5-versus-xhtml-2/

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/industry-news/setting-the-standards-html-5-vs-xhtml-2-002032.php

Answer 6

Ultimately, this is all that is supported by browser developers. HTML 5 has rich functionality, but the final version may take years. There are some difficulties in implementing functions such as support for audio and video in 4 (+) main rendering mechanisms, as well as their behavior the same. Even validation will be challenging. Most browsers other than IE support the canvas and SVG elements, but they still only account for about 25% of the market. If IE still gives 75-80% of the market share, users who do not use or do not pay attention to alternatives will not be able to use more advanced functions, which gives developers a tough solution.

IE8 only finally implements the support that other browsers used for users, which means that the IE user base will always lag behind in compatibility. Although HTML 5 is a good idea, I think proprietary solutions like Flash / AIR and Google Gears will still provide standardized support for the rich features offered by HTML 5. The biggest problem is standardization - you need to create the site with the largest percentage of users as possible. However, there is hope. Mozilla has created a plug-in for IE - we could see an open-source IE add-in that brings it to a specific standard that users can install just like Flash.

They are very open to Microsoft credit with the development of IE8 and Windows 7 (see their project blogs), so it is likely that more active development of IE will accelerate the adoption of HTML 5.

Answer 7

The W3C allowed the xhtml2 working group charter to expire in 2009 . Their resources were transferred to the html5 working group. The html5 specification contains a section called XHTML Syntax .