I am happy that today's browsers (Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Opera, Firefox 1.0+, Safari) obey 80-90% of HTML 4.01 Strict and CSS2.1. We finally have a consistent and reliable subset of web standards that we can use to make compelling web applications.
Thus, I can create nice looking sites that are standards compliant and consistently rendered on most machines. I only have to hack around flaws in IE6. These hacks are less severe than the ones for IE5.x, Opera 1-6, Netscape 4.x, or any version of IE for MacOS. I do not hate Macs. They should be using iCab, Camino, Safari, or Firefox. The newest iCab still works in MacOS 8.5! No excuses, folks!
I fear for the future because with 55 web dialects running loose, it could be the late 90's all over again where everybody implements a different part of each standard differently. XHTML1, XHTML 1.1, XHTML2, HTML5, Web Forms 2, SVG, XAML, and Canvas (thanks Apple) all exist to supposedly make our web designing lives EASIER. I just hope implementations are better than last time.
Also, the only standards on that list that Microsoft may support are
1. XAML (definitely, they invented it)
2. XHTML 1 and 1.1 (growing in popularity, readable by all others, may need new parser according to IEBlog)
3. XHTML2. (future, if at all)
I hope they add more, but I'm not holding my breath. There are severe problems and contradictions in some of the standards themselves (new SVG). Others are solutions looking for problems (XQuery, anyone?). I wonder if we will all just be following Microsoft's lead again...
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Opera today has some basic support for HTML5. Try opening a page with the new markup and check the new features. Some look promising! |
