Thursday, February 09, 2006

The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0

The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0: "The future of HTML, Part 2: XHTML 2.0

Examining the W3C's approach to improving HTML
developerWorks


Level: Introductory

Edd Dumbill (edd@usefulinc.com), Chair, XTech Conference

25 Jan 2006

In this two-part series, Edd Dumbill examines the various ways forward for HTML that Web authors, browser developers, and standards bodies propose. This series covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C's new Rich Client Activity. Here in Part 2, Edd focuses on the work in process at the W3C to specify the future of Web markup.

In the previous article in this series, I described why HTML is due for an update, both to fix past problems and to meet the growing requirements of the tasks to which Web pages and applications are put. I explained the work of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), a loose collaboration of browser vendors, in creating their Web Applications 1.0 and Web Forms 2.0 specifications.

In this article, I'll examine the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in creating the next-generation version of their XHTML specification, and also their response to the demand for 'rich client' behavior exemplified by Ajax applications."

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