HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
style of Python. For many years, the ultimate solution in cross-browser compatibility has
been the jQuery library. HTML5 doesn't replace libraries like jQuery, but it should help
make them more performant. The extensive effort to standardize browser behavior through
the process of building the HTML5 spec will also make the compatibility provided by these
libraries less important. Some common JS library features that are replaced by HTML5 are
shown in
table A.2
.
Table A.2. JS Library functionality and modern web platform equivalents
Feature
JS libraries
HTML5 (or related) feature
The getElementsByClassName() method was originally introduced in the
HTML Living Standard; it's currently in the DOM CORE spec at W3C. The
querySelector() and querySelectorAll() methods are defined in the Selectors
API Level 1 spec at the W3C.
Selecting elements
by class
Nearly all
Scriptaculous,
jQuery-UI, ExtJS,
Dojo, YUI
Drag and drop
Added to the HTML Living Standard as a reverse engineering of the IE feature.
Advanced form
controls (date pick-
ers, sliders, spin-
boxes, etc.)
jQuery-UI, ExtJS,
Dojo, YUI
New form controls are part of the core HTML5 specification.
Storing arbitrary
data on elements
Jquery, Dojo
HTML5 has data-* attributes for storing data for scripting.
A.4. Keeping up with the specs
The best way to keep up with the main HTML specification is to follow The WHATWG
Blog (
http://blog.whatwg.org/
). Reading the specification in its raw form can be tedious,
to say the least. We find it much easier to read the spec using the edition for web authors,
which is available at
http://developers.whatwg.org/
.
This edition doesn't include the tech-
nical information targeted at browser vendors and is far easier to read.
For the rest of the specifications there's no central source. Each individual W3C working
group has its own blog and/or mailing list. One approach is to keep an eye on the devel-
opment blogs for the major browsers to find out what new features they're experimenting
with:
•
Mozilla Hacks
:
https://hacks.mozilla.org/
•
Google Chrome Blog
:
http://chrome.blogspot.co.uk/
