Microsoft's future hinges on attracting developers to build Windows 8 apps. But by offering financial incentives, supporting a range of programming languages and allowing developers to write code once for multiple devices, those developers may soon follow.
HTML is a standard dictated by browser vendors – not an independent body.
That seems to be the message from the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), which has announced it would be dropping version numbering from the HTML specification once work on HTML5 is complete. Henceforth, HTML will become a "living standard," with the most current version of the specification being the one maintained on the group's website. In other words, the standard is whatever WHATWG says it is this week.
Technically anyone can participate in the HTML standardisation process, via WHATWG's mailing list. But those who do so are known as "contributors," and their role is much like that of concerned citizens at a city council meeting. Actual membership in the WHATWG is an elite affair, however, and is by invitation only. Currently the total membership consists of three representatives from the Mozilla Foundation, two from Opera Software, two from Apple, one from Google, and one independent developer.
In effect, that is who is deciding the future of the web: four of the leading web browser vendors, all of whom have incentive to pile ever more features into their products to compete with alternative RIA (rich Internet application) platforms such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. (If you're wondering where Internet Explorer fits into all this, notice that Microsoft is not a WHATWG member.) What is more, Apple and Google are both prominent providers of web content. But hey – surely they all have our best interests at heart, right?
HTML5: A long-time coming
Recently I applauded the decline of Flash and other proprietary RIA (rich internet application) platforms, particularly with HTML5 promising improved support for interactivity and multimedia. Not everyone agreed with me. And like so many tech debates, there is a flip side to the HTML coin, as I was recently reminded when I took on the job of revamping a website for a friend's business.
My friend's original web developer had gone missing, leaving him in a lurch. With new products due to arrive and no way for my friend to update the site, it fell to me to pick up where the last developer left off. Like many small websites, my friend's had grown organically, beginning as simple "brochureware" and gaining new features over time: a contact form, photo galleries, a blog.
Nothing seemed to work as advertised. If I copied the site to a new server, it broke. If I moved it to a different directory, it broke. Each new feature was bolted onto the last.
HTML 5 also continues the effort to separate web content from presentation. Developers might be surprised to see the b and i elements available in the new standard, for example, but these elements are now used to offset portions of text in generic ways, without implying any specific typographic treatment. Where the i element once implied italic type, for example, in HTML 5 it merely means "a span of text in an alternate voice or mood." Similarly, the b element does not imply specifically boldfaced text, but text that is stylistically offset without having any additional importance.
Google will end Gears, an open-source plug-in project it launched two years ago to allow Web applications to function even when a computer isn't connected to the Internet, according to a statement from the company.