Don't get me wrong there are some epic features in there, all the new form elements, geolocation and sockets to mention a few.. but these all come at a price and will probably not find themselves in the vast majority of sites. I think apps are most likely to reap the benefits from the new standard.

And herein lies the rub. Geolocation and WebSockets APIs are not HTML5. They are independent APIs developed by W3C with nonstandard support across browsers and have introduced serious security issues. The same goes for WebGL, Storage API, Web Workers, and a whole host of other APIs/features that people associate with HTML5, yet are not HTML5, are not (and might never be) cross browser supported, and might be scrapped or changed at any time due to the severe security issues that continue to creep up. In addition, there is no consensus on a minimum video codec support, so the video tag remains nonstandardized and does not enjoy cross browser support.

Worst of all, is that the link above lumps all of these HTML5 APIs into one lesson on "HTML5" and uses names like "HTML5 Storage" (even though he admits it is a seperate API later) that further obfuscate what HTML5 actually is and the mess that is surrounding the current sea of independent web APIs and lack of consensus on codec support. It is a great site for getting an overview on new web technologies, but it really perpetuates the mythical HTML5 creature and spurs people on to make posts in threads like these where they attack people for not seeing the grand vision that HTML5 offers. And when you try and point out the wizened man behind the curtain, you are labeled a troll who is ignorant of the splendor of HTML5. Both Antheus and VildNinja have provided correct answers in this thread. Antheus is right to point out the flaws and shortcomings of HTML5, and VildNinja appropriately linked what the OP wanted to see, even if most of the stuff is not HTML5.

Quit the pedantry. Web standards have been vague, fluid and mostly slapdash affairs for 20 years. Now we're supposed to start ignoring things without formal standards?

No, standards have always been just that. Just like RFCs, which can be vague, but have defined the important parts of the internet.

As for pedantry. Last time I suggested using std::auto_ptr I was quickly corrected that it's deprecated and the correct use, according to standard these days, is std::unique_ptr. But same thing holds, the latter is unavailable and the end user simply doesn't care.

The reason web is a mess is precisely because of that. Lack of pedantry on all sides.

HTML5 is page markup and no more. It doesn't even include CSS, but does defined scripting and some other elements and DOM APIs.

But due to conflicts of interest and downright stonewalling by various browser vendors, majority of important features that make up for modern web development have been moved out under Web Standards Project (apparently, that's what they prefer to be called).



So in what way is calling HTML5 a marketing term a problem? Unless the original question was about HTML5 markup, which I could have misunderstood, but HTML5 markup has no "cutting edge". It just renames a few elements. But if using umbrella term, then things get really complicated. CSS is 40+ documents alone. Not counting browser-vendor specifics. It's huge.


And on related topic: I'd like to learn about "cloud". Everyone is doing it. Where can I learn everything about it?

Finally, for the reality of web.
- I have a relatively new top-of-the-line LCD TV with internet and all. Browser doesn't support HTML5. It doesn't even support Flash, it uses some hack to enable Youtube and nothing more. This is the TV I'm stuck with for the next 5-10 years. Or, despite integrating one of standard browser codebases, it doesn't fulfil the role.
- I have an android phone into which I'm locked for well over a year (barring spending a fortune). It isn't going to be upgraded. I'm not jailbreaking it either - that's not exactly reasonable.
- Banking, tax and corporate services, certificate authority (death and taxes, the really really important stuff) I use requires IE7 on Windows. No, I cannot change, unless someone offers a quick and cheap way to immigrate - "Reason: I want government with Ubuntu 11 support"
- The old backup phone I have uses Opera browser abandoned 5 years ago.

But yes, if you are on Win7 Windows, you have a choice of dozens of browsers. If you are on Mac, you have a choice of about 10. If you are on Linux, same, just different subset.

And something people don't realize yet. Come Windows 8, non-IE browsers are going away for Metro platform. There will be no plugins, no alternate browsers, just default Web Window (or similar friendly name). And people won't care, because switching back to legacy (ugh) mode will be reserved for power users.

So as a web developer, you'll be able to scream all you want about Metro not doing the right thing, but it won't matter. And then you'll wish there were some way to force them to follow some common guidelines. Or a standard.

Microsoft is no longer a monopoly, not on Web, not in mobile or desktop. So all the injunctions about what they did with IE to destroy competition no longer apply. Metro will do to web what they did to native development. Sure, it's C++, as long as you don't mind being C++/CLI. One is standard, but the other is what you need to use. So for web it will be whatever they provide.


But for those who use Facebook, Google and Twitter, with occasional Flickr or such, there will be no problem. Those sites have thousand-strong engineering backup that will make anything happen. As long as you are in the 80% of users group.

... C++/CLI ...

Now hold on a second. I already told you once in another thread, there is no C++/CLI focus in Windows 8. C++/CLI is a language made by Microsoft, and it's only function is to combine .NET code with native. It's not a gerneal purpose application programming language and it never will be. The language is so unpolished and undocumented that they can't even get C++/CLI intelesense to work in their IDE, so they disable it all together. Don't confuse it with their other technologies or rumors you might have heard.

I also have no idea why you are saying it's IE or the highway for Metro. Somebodies probably already porting Firefox and Chrome to WinRT.