HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Bleeding-Edge HTML5
This chapter is a bit different than the previous because its sole purpose is to get you excited about the new
features coming soon to the browsers you use every day. Some of these features are rolled into the current HTML5
specification; others remain outside the HTML5 domain, are in specific browsers only, or are set for HTML.next
In this chapter, I'll cover some really amazing APIs and features such as Web Intents, WebSockets, WebGL,
WebRTC, bleeding-edge CSS3, and others. I'll also focus on the emerging browsers from the Google Chrome team,
Mozilla, Apple, and Opera, as well as to discuss how they, as well as Microsoft, Adobe, W3C, and WHATWG, are
making specific additions to the open web standard that will impact your campaigns moving forward.
As you've learned throughout the topic, HTML5 is an evolving specification, but working group members
currently are determining what should stay in HTML5 and what should be pushed off until HTML.next. It may seem
odd that there are two different specifications of the HTML5 specification, one managed by the W3C, which aims to
make HTML5 a snapshot specification, and one managed by the WHATWG, which aims to make the HTML standard
an organic, ever-growing document that builds and iterates through the years of the open Web's growth. However, it's
not terribly important to get wrapped up in which specification is which; just be sure to know when the browsers have
implemented these new features and when user adoption will take place.
Finally, please take this chapter with a “grain of salt.” A lot of these features may not make it into the HTML5
specification and could be pushed off to the next iteration, or some could even be retired. However, be aware that
working groups are committed to creating and enabling amazing things inside your browsers, and being on top of
them allows you to better prepare for what your clients will eventually ask for. Whether it lands in HTML5, 6, 6.
x
, or
something else entirely, shouldn't matter much. If you can use a feature and, more importantly, use it where your
target audience is, that's the most important part to take away from this chapter. That said, let's dig into the really
amazing and bleeding-edge features of the modern Web!
Emerging Browsers
In this chapter, I will showcase what's to come, in other words, the emerging and most forward-thinking stuff that's
being cooked up by some really smart people and coming to your browser. As I've stressed in previous chapters, you
should be working with the latest version of your favorite browser, and to be quite honest, if you've made it this far in
the topic using IE 6 to IE 8, God bless you, and please send me your address so I can personally come to your house
and install an update for you.
For this chapter specifically, you should be working with one of the browsers shown in Figure
12-1.
