HTML 5.0

[Jason]

An interesting read on the first new version of HTML since 1999:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-html5/

Quoted:

HTML 5 introduces new elements to HTML for the first time since the last millennium. New structural elements include aside, figure, and section. New inline elements include time, meter, and progress. New embedding elements include video and audio. New interactive elements include details, datagrid, and command.

Development of HTML stopped in 1999 with HTML 4. The W3C focused its efforts on changing the underlying syntax of HTML from Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to XML, as well as completely new markup languages like Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), XForms, and MathML. Browser vendors focused on browser features like tabs and RSS readers. Web designers started learning CSS and the JavaScript™ language to build their own applications on top of the existing frameworks using Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax). But HTML itself grew hardly at all in the next eight years.

Recently, the beast came back to life. Three major browser vendors—Apple, Opera, and the Mozilla Foundation—came together as the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WhatWG) to develop an updated and upgraded version of classic HTML. More recently, the W3C took note of these developments and started its own next-generation HTML effort with many of the same members. Eventually, the two efforts will likely be merged. Although many details remain to be argued over, the outlines of the next version of HTML are becoming clear...  [click link above for full text]

Here's another great article on it:  http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/34389

[Jason]

Update:  WC3 press release today on HTML 5

http://www.w3.org/2008/02/html5-pressrelease

Some unedited snippets:

Why the Community Wants HTML 5
Engineers, designers, marketing departments, and users have learned much about the Web as a medium since HTML 4 was first published in December 1997. Web sites reflect this progress: no longer static page collections, they are now media-rich communities that leverage participation and evolve dynamically to better meet customer needs. Ajax and related innovations have propelled demands for a new standard that allows people to create Web applications that interoperate across desktop and mobile platforms.

What's New in HTML 5
Some of the most interesting new features for authors are APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics, embedding and controlling audio and video content, maintaining persistent client-side data storage, and for enabling users to edit documents and parts of documents interactively. Other features make it easier to represent familiar page elements, including <section> <footer>; <nav> (for navigation), and <figure> (for assigning a caption to a photo or other embedded content). Authors write HTML 5 using either a "classic" HTML syntax or an XML syntax, according to application demands.