HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Version
Specification URL
Description
HTML 2.0
www.w3.org/MarkUp/
html-spec/html-spec_toc.html
Classic HTML dialect supported by browsers
such as Mosaic. This form of HTML supports
core HTML elements and features such as
tables and forms, but does not consider any of
the browser innovations of advanced features
such as style sheets, scripting, or frames.
HTML 3.0
www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/
Contents.html
The proposed replacement for HTML 2.0 that
was never widely adopted, most likely due to
the heavy use of browser-specific markup.
HTML 3.2
www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32
This version of HTML finalized by the W3C in
early 1997 standardized most of the HTML
features introduced in browsers such as
Netscape 3. This speficifcation supports many
presentation elements, such as
font
, as well
as early support for some scripting features.
HTML 4.0
Transitional
www.w3.org/TR/html4/
The 4.0 transitional form finalized by the
W3C in December of 1997 preserves most
of the presentational elements of HTML 3.2.
It provides a basis of transition to Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS) as well as a base set of
elements and attributes for multiple-language
support, accessibility, and scripting.
HTML 4.0 Strict
www.w3.org/TR/html4/
The strict version of HTML 4.0 removes most
of the presentation elements from the HTML
specification, such as
font
, in favor of using
CSS for page formatting.
4.0 Frameset
www.w3.org/TR/html4/
The frameset specification provides a rigorous
syntax for framed documents that was lacking
in previous versions of HTML.
HTML 4.01
Transitional/
Strict/Frameset
www.w3.org/TR/html401/
A minor update to the 4.0 standard that
corrects some of the errors in the original
specification.
HTML5
www.w3.org/TR/html5/
Addressing the lack of acceptance of the XML
reformulation of HTML by the mass of Web
page authors, the emerging HTML5 standard
originally started by the WHATWG group and
later rolled into a W3C effort aimed to rekindle
the acceptance of traditional HTML and extend
it to address Web application development,
multimedia, and the ambiguities found in
browser parsers. Since 2005, features now
part of this HTML specification have begun to
appear in Web browsers, muddying the future
of XHTML.
T
ABLE
3-1
(X)HTML Specifications Overview
