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The Hypertext Markup Language [HTML] still provides the foundation for presenting documents on the Internet however they may be generated, be they static or dynamic, or enhanced with a variety of scripting languages. The current standard, HTML 4.01, started it’s reign as the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] recommendation back in 1997 as HTML 4.0. During it tenure other standards for the Extensible Markup Language [XML], a markup language for crating custom solutions, and the Document Object Model [DOM] Level 2, which defines JavaScript implementations for HTML and the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language [XHTML]. The HTML 5 standard is a work in progress that will seek to consolidate these standards into a single workable document that browser developers can use to render incorporate the functionality they offer and render documents in a consistant manner.

During the life of HTML 4 we have seen browsers from Netscape and Microsoft go from developing proprietary elements where website designers had to markup a document to suit each browser or limit features to what could be rendered in both, to the browser developers conforming to common standards from the W3C that so a document could be expected to perform similarly in modern browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari or Chrome. JavaScript was originally a proprietary scripting language for Netscape Navigator. The Document Object Model was another example. With XML, Microsoft tried to maintain it’s own proprietary implementation. Today, conformity to the standard, and as such to the end user, has become the primary objective.

HTML 5 is still a draft and won’t be considered complete until vendors such as Firefox and Internet Explorer develop browsers that use the specifications. As a matter of fact two implementations of the standard are a condition of it’s status. But we’re still a long ways from that. Definitions for implementing new elements for both accessibility and structure are still in working groups. As for layout, style still be the realm of Cascading Style Sheets [CSS] with continuing improvement of it’s implementation in future browsers. What end users will see is vast improvement in the browser’s recognition of media types and “drag and drop” features that simulate the desktop features found in Windows or Mac. Messaging interfaces will become seamless much like we have come to expect in the applications available with Gmail and Yahoo! which are implementations of what has become known as AJAX [Asynchronous JavaScript and XML] which is just an acronym for some of the standards mentioned above. These are examples of what will be brought under the common tent of HTML5 and grow, along with bandwith, to present the end user and ever friendlier environment to interact with the web.Картини