The Question I’m getting: Is it time start using HTML5?

The Answer I’m giving: It depends.

(and that answer doesn’t get a lot of applause)

HTML5 is the next (proposed) version of the underlying language of the web, bringing with it some great features like plug-in-less video and audio, a pixel-based drawing and animating canvas, local storage of data, and additional semantic tags that more accurately reflect the kind of content web developers create on a daily basis.

HTML5 will (along with the improvements in Javascript, Javascript libraries, CSS3 and SVG) allow web developers to create powerful online web applications in addition to more capable web pages.

HTML5 is coming to a browser near you soon. As a matter of fact, depending on which browser you’re using, you may already have an almost full complement of HTML5 capabilities. And there’s the rub: standards-based web development requires that our content accommodate the least capable of browsers – we don’t lock people out from our content because of their choice of browsers. Which means we generally don’t use a new web technology until all common browsers can use it.

So if you’re asking “should I start coding all my sites in HTML5 today?” – the answer is “of course not.”

If you’re asking “can I start enhancing my sites with strategically-used parts of HTML5 using progressive enhancement techniques that allow modern browsers to enjoy the full experience while still providing essential information to everyone?” –  then I say go for it, there are wonderful things to be built with this new technology.

For a great overview of what parts of HTML5 are currently supported by each major browser go to http://a.deveria.com/caniuse/

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 10:19 am by James Conway and is filed under C2, HTML. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.