HTML5: The Platform vs. the Specification

HTML5 is a specification that describes some new tags and markup, as
well as some wonderful JavaScript APIs, but it’s getting caught up in
a whirlwind of hype and promises. Unfortunately, HTML5 the standard
has evolved into HTML5 the platform, creating an awful lot of confusion
among developers, customers, and even authors. In some cases, pieces

from the CSS3 specification such as shadows, gradients, and transformations
are being called “HTML.” Browser makers are trying to one-up
each other with how much “HTML5” they support. People are starting
to make strange requests like “My site will be in HTML5, right?”
For the majority of the book, we’ll focus on the HTML5 and CSS3 specifications
themselves and how you can use the techniques they describe.
In the last part of the book, we’ll look into a suite of closely related
specifications that were once part of HTML5 but are in use right now
on multiple platforms. These include We b SQL Databases, Geolocation,
and We b Sockets. Although these things aren’t technically HTML5, they
can help you build incredible things when combined with HTML5 and
CSS3.