why should we keep HTML ?

[Fenring]

Hi,

I don't know where to ask this question : I haven't found it in the FAQ.

As a developer, I find XML much simpler and more powerful than SGML or HTML.
As HTML5 defines how to handle/correct every kind of errors, I asume it is more difficult to develop a HTML parser/browser, than an XHTML one ?

Can someone tell me what are the advantages of HTML5 over XHTML5 ?


Thanks !

[anne]

Building an HTML parser is about as difficult as building an XML parser. The real problems are not in HTML or XHTML, but in updating the DOM and rendering (CSS, etc.).

[Richard Eger]

Good morning all.

My comment on HTML5 is very general.

I give you a bit of my background to help evaluate my comments and prepare the proper amount of salt.

commentator: basically self-taught, limited to development in basic, s-basic, dbase III, foxPro, and now getting into Visual FoxPro, HTML, PHP, SQL, Linux, and other related topics. In other words, I am honored to have this moment to publicly express my opinion.

observations:

1. HTML, and its development through XTML and DOM, remind me of the development from DOS into Windows, from Linux kernal into Ubuntu. It seems that HTML is moving from a simple command line interface to a mature graphic user interface.

2. The aplication of tags in documents, especially in the XML format, greatly exagerates the byte count of data in storage and in transmission, with the combined degredation of available space and the time required for transmission of the data.

3. The world of international communications technology and its availability to the general public has moved far beyond the initial stages when each byte transmitted consumed a lot of time, and the protocol was limited to TTY (ticker tape codes). The comparitively super-fast speed of our present transmission has opened the door to other options.

Comments:

1. HTML5 seems to me to be an attempt to force an older technology to do a modern job, at the high price of continued expansion of data storage space and consumption of transmission time, factors that some consider ignorable in our current environment. Efficiency and economy, however, are values that are abandoned only to the users' personal damage ( and probably hurting many more in the process. )

2. The move from a mere presentation of documents into a full interactive environment is indeed (in my opinion) the direction to go. My objection is that the HTML5 route is not the best option.

3. What the world needs is a fully mature interactive (GUI) envirnment that is efficient in space and time, a kind of 'global operating system', something that Linux or Windows is already capable of supplying, if only the information world would have permitted it a long time ago.

Suggestions:

1. Move the focus of our efforts from developing an interactive user environment based on HTML to developing a fully mature interactive internet environment based on direct file access, like access at the local area network (LAN) level.


Thank you all for this opportunity of a life-time to express my view, even if no one ever reads or reacts to it.

That's all folks!