HTML5 heading for an early grave?

 

I was very dismayed when I read this yesterday.

A number of news services have done the rounds since, including this today on Slashdot.

I think it’s all a bit depressing really. So we have another 3-4 years to wait for the final spec to be sorted. Then of course we have to wait for the spec to be implemented (badly) by all the necessary browsers. Of course they are already supporting various bits of it, but their implementations will no doubt change along the way and cause untold numbers of apps to break with them. Then we have to wait for everyone to upgrade their browsers. So what is the real date that HTML5 is go? 2020?

All of a sudden native apps seem kinda appealing and Flash doesn’t seem quite as evil as it used to be. 🙁

Cheers

Tim…

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

4 thoughts on “HTML5 heading for an early grave?”

  1. The thing is the HTML spec isn’t something that’s completely drafted and only then implemented, it’s implemented as it’s spec’d (or spec’d as it’s implemented) and only once all the players agree on the details…

    I’m not so pessimistic, but an HTML 4.5 (ie a smaller scope) would’ve been a good thing.

  2. Colin:

    Like I said, they are already supporting bits, but until the spec if finalized, no browser can claim to be HTML5 compliant and no developer can know categorically what their toolkit contains. It would be nice to think that on the day it is finalized all browsers will already support all the features, but the lessons of the past suggest this will not be true.

    I agree. An intermediate step would have been a very good idea and would have given us at least a solid base to start from.

    Cheers

    Tim…

  3. Tim, take your same argument but change “HTML5” to “HTML4” & it’s still valid. Truth is, not all browsers implement everything consistently in HTML4 & that was finalized at the end of 1999.

    Instead of fretting about aspects of HTML5 that aren’t supported in all browsers, some of us have taken this as an opportunity to get to know all we can about the new technologies & how we can use them right now.

  4. Hi.

    I take your point about HTML4, but I think there is one big difference. People’s expectations of the web when HTML4 was getting finalized were rather low. Desktop applications were crap. The smartphone (as we know it now) didn’t exist. HTML4 didn’t have anything to live up to.

    Now we have amazing native apps on mobile phones that HTML5 can’t compete with. So when someone makes a choice they can pick native, or HTML5 that isn’t as good and isn’t finished yet. That’s quite different.

    I agree this is a great time for consultants who like to geek out (I do the same with Oracle), but that is not my concern. I’m looking at it from a business perspective. Which route would a business like to take. Dates like 2014 and the subsequent browser upgrade issue are a big deal because they will affect peoples decision processes. As one of the links pointed out, Flash is getting big in the mobile market. There is a reason for that. Flash is mature (takes time to stop laughing) and it works now.

    Cheers

    Tim…

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