Re: HTML5 differences from HTML4 editor's draft

On Wed, 2007-06-13 at 16:18 +0200, Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> I drafted up a document that lists the differences from HTML4:
> 
>    http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/html5/html4-differences/Overview.html
> 
> Feedback is welcome on the document itself.

Very nice.

The first sentence seems to be disconnected from the rest of the
document:

| HTML5 is different from HTML4 in a way that it addresses both
| document and application semantics making it more suitable for
| the web applications created today.

Can you help me see how that relates to any of the specific
HTML4/HTML5 differences?


I did some noodling on opening paragraphs, and this is what
I came up with... it's still a little redundant and needs
polish, but... what do you think?


[[
HTML has been in continuous evolution since it was
introduced to the Internet in the early 1990's. Some features
were introduced in specifications; others were introduced
in software releases. In some respects, implementations
and author practices have converged with each other and
with specifications and standards, but in other ways, they
continue to diverge.

HTML 4 became a W3C Recommendation in 1997. While it continues
to serve as a rough guide to many of the core features of HTML,
it does not provide enough information to build implementations
that interoperate with a critical mass of deployed content.

The HTML5 draft reflects an effort, started in 2004, to
study contemporary HTML implementations and deployed content and
  (1) specify enough detail to promote interoperable
      implementations
  (2) standardize markup for emerging idioms

HTML 4 is specified in terms of SGML, but influential
implementations started with ad-hoc parsers and evolved in
tandem with author practices.
Inspired by the forward compatible error handling in CSS,
HTML5 defines detailed processing models where necessary to ensure that
implementations become interoperable and that the language
stays extensible in the future.
]]

p.s. I'm happy to commit this edit, or something close to it, if you
like.

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Wednesday, 13 June 2007 23:30:02 UTC