understand the emerging use of HTML5.

Another article form Jim Hayes, expanding on the last one:

To expand upon my last post, explaining the competition growing between Apple and Adobe, it’s important to understand the emerging use of HTML5.

HTML5 is a revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. HTML5 is the proposed “next” standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. One of its primary aims is to reduce the need for proprietary, plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies, such as Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash. This can help explain the exclusion of Flash support in Apple iPhone OS devices mentioned earlier, one of the most controversial attributes of the new iPad.

The HTML5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2007. The specification is an ongoing work, though certain components of HTML5 are already completed and will be/are being implemented in browsers before the whole specification reaches its final recommendation status.

HTML5 introduces a number of new attributes and capabilities that reflect typical usage on many modern Web sites. Some of those additions are semantic replacements for common uses of generic block (<div>) and inline (<span>) elements, for example <nav> (website navigation block) and <footer> (usually refer to the last lines of html code).

Other elements provide new functionality through a standardized interface, such as the <audio> and <video> elements, as a beginning to standardize the markup of such content.

There are quite a few upgrades and differences from HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.x.Some relatively obsolete elements from HTML 4.01 have also been dropped, including things such as the presentational elements of <center> and <font> ; effects now simply achieved using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). There is also a renewed emphasis on the importance of JavaScript in modern Web behavior.

In addition to specifying markup, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces (APIs), including drag and drop, timed media playback, browser history management and offline storage database support (offline web applications.)

HTML5 also has enhanced error handling capabilities, and is designed so that old browsers can safely ignore new HTML5 constructs. In contrast to HTML 4.01, the HTML5 specification gives detailed rules for lexing and parsing, with the intent that different compliant browsers will produce the same result in the case of incorrect syntax.

HTML5 is designed to handle connections between users (or visitors), with PeerToPeerConnection, and also with websocket. This technology is a direct competitor to the new flash peer-to-peer technology.

Essentially, all of these features show how innovative HTML5 will be, a bold leap forward as a standard web markup language. And its introduction could make a number of the most popular current technologies, including Flash, effectively obsolete.

This makes Steve Jobs and Apple’s gamble of ignoring one of the most utilized web technologies today, Adobe Flash – which is used by over 1.2 billion mobile phones worldwide; 70% of online games; 98% of internet-enabled desktops; 85% of top 100 websites, and is the number one platform for video on the web, with 75% of all online videos – a potentially brilliant move. But it still remains to be seen if HTML5 changes the web game quickly enough to make Apple’s gambit work.