What is new in HTML 5?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been working to set the specifications for the new HTML 5. They have produced a document that outlines all the changes, deletions, and additions. This draft is very long and a little tiring to read, so I’ve tried to create a short summary of important parts. This summary is by no means all inclusive or a replacement for the information in the draft on the W3C’s website.
New Elements in HTML 5
These new elements are intended to provide better structure.
section, article, aside, header, footer, nav, dialog, figure, audio, video, embed, mark, meter, time, canvas, command, datagrid, details, datalist, datatemplate, rule, nest, event-source, output, progress, ruby, rt, rb
New Attributes in HTML 5
The elements listed below have had attributes added to them. There are too many attributes to list in this summary, so we are only listing those elements that have had attributes added.
a, area, base, value, meta, input, output, select, textarea, button, fieldset, form, textarea, menu, style, script, html, ol, link, iframe
Changed Elements in HTML 5
These elements have been changed to reflect the way they were being used.
a, address, b, i, hr, label, menu, small, strong, q
Deleted Elements in HTML 5
These elements have been removed either because they should be used in CSS, they had a lack of usability, or they were confusing.
basefont, big, center, font, s, strike, tt, u, frame, frameset, noframes, acronym, applet, isindex, dir
Deleted Attributes in HTML 5
These attributes have been removed because these, like some of the deleted elements above, they should be used in CSS.
accesskey, rev, charset, shape, coords, longdesc, target, nohref, profile, version, name, scheme, archive, classid, codebase, codetype, declare, standby, valuetype, type, language, summary, axis, abbr, scope, headersalign, alink, link, text, vlink, background, bgcolor, border, cellpadding, cellspacing, char, charoff, clear, compact, frame, frameborder, height, hspace, vspace, marginheight, marginwidth, noshade, nowrap, rules, scrolling, size, type, valign, width
New APIs in HTML 5
HTML5 introduces some new APIs for easier web application creation.
2D Drawing, audio, video, persistant storage, offline, editing, drag & drop, network, notification, history, cross document messaging, server sent events
HTMLDocument Extensions
These provide easier interfacing with the DOM.
getElementsByClassName(), innerHTML, activeElement, hasFocus, getSelection(), designMode, execCommand()
HTMLElement Extensions
These provide easier interfacing with the DOM.
getElementsByClassName(), innerHTML, classList
There is a lot more in HTML5 that is not covered here. I would encourage you to read over the new specifications and get a better idea of what HTML 5 is all about. For instance, the deleted attributes are removed from specific elements, so be sure to look over the full documentation before getting too worried about any changes made in HTML 5. Although this release was a working draft published on January 22, 2008, it is expected to be in development for at least another year if not more.