HTML 5

Welcome back to "This Week in HTML 5," where I'll try to summarize the major activity in the ongoing standards process in the WHATWG and W3C HTML Working Group. The primary editor was traveling this week, so there are very few spec changes to discuss. Instead, I'd like to try something a little different.

It has been suggested (1, 2, 3, &c.) that HTML 5 is trying to bite off more than it can metaphorically chew. It is true that it is a large specification, and it might benefit from being split into several pieces. But it is not true that it includes everything but the kitchen sink.

For example, HTML 5 will not

• deprecate <textarea>
• allow arbitrary markup in <option>
• include an <altinput> element (reference)
• allow authors to localize the "Browse" button that represents a file input control
• allow authors to localize the open-file dialog that opens in response to activating a file input control
• mandate that browsers display a progress bar during file upload
• limit the number of selected checkboxes or options in a web form
• allow web authors to specify a regular expression constraint on a <textarea>
• support form controls associated with more than one form
• change the default type of <button>
• allow web authors to mark form fields as auto-tabbing
• support form seeding
• rename the HTMLCollection .length attribute to .count
• expose a native JSON parser for web content
• support client-side includes
• try to compete with Docbook

Daniel Schattenkirchner asked whether Almost-Standards mode is still needed. Almost-Standards mode is a form of DOCTYPE sniffing invented by Mozilla in 2002 to address line heights in table cells containing images. Bug 153032 implemented the new mode, which Mozilla called "Almost Standards mode" and HTML 5 calls "limited quirks mode." Henri Sivonen made the point that it would probably be too expensive to get rid of the mode. Like it or not, we're probably stuck with it.

And finally, a gem that I missed when it was first discussed: back in July, "Lars" provided the best documentation of the <keygen> element, ever.

Tune in next week for another exciting episode of "This Week in HTML 5."

This item was originally posted at: http://blog.whatwg.org and is licensed under the MIT license