Thoughts on HTML5 Application Status and Development Prospects

Currently, HTML5 is like Ajax, which was emerging in the past. Some people are doing it, but they don't know what it is. Recently, Apple made a big fuss about HTML5, while Eric Meyer, a famous Web designer, proposed the concept of Web Stacks. Alex Kessinger is a front-end engineer of Yahoo. This article describes the current situation and prospects of HTML5 applications (complete text version ).

Terms

First, let's talk about several definitions in HTML5 applications.

HTML5

The best HTML5 definition comes from Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into HTML5:

"HTML5 is the next generation of HTML after HTML4.01, XHTML 1.0/1.1"

It is worth mentioning that we may see HTML6, but according to Pilgrim's description in the WHATWG blog, the next generation of HTML is likely to remove the version number.

Application

Explanation from Wikipedia:

"Applications are software that computers use to execute specific tasks"

HTML5 applications

From the user's perspective, HTML5 applications are not exactly the same as other computer applications, but they are very similar. From the developer's point of view, HTML5 applications are some programs based on HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. They use open technology, can be used offline, and can replace some work of specialized platforms such as Silverlight and Flash. Or, over the years, what you used to create Web pages can now be used to create applications similar to desktop and smartphone programs. The open-source mode brings about a change

Tim o'reilly, founder of o'reilly, an Open Source supporter, once said in Open Source Paradigm Shift:

"The commercialization of IBM's personal computer design has moved profits from hardware to software, and open source will bring new wealth"

The value is transferred at different levels, HTML5 will become a new level, the value of goods is declining, the current browser has become a commodity, but this is no problem, as long as they all comply with standards. People say that we can put the operating system in a browser, but this doesn't work. If we can learn something from past experiences, we can't simply copy the previous model, just like the changes from broadcasting to television, you cannot simply put a camera in front of an announcer, and placing an operating system in a browser is not necessarily more valuable than HTML5 offline applications. Important release channels

Channels such as Apple App Store and Android app store will become dominant. In addition, some new channels such as Valve game channels and Netflix movie channels will emerge, in the "Cloud" era, these release channels are used to organize and classify users like operating systems in the desktop era.

How did we reach this stage?

There are two key factors.

Thanks to Web standards

Although the browser market is not uniform, at least they all run HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. When we want to launch something through the Web, we know that users can see it in any case. However, can you imagine that people define their own Web scenarios, if someone does not use HTTP or HTML, it is the end of the world. W3C organizations keep browser manufacturers in the same direction.

We don't have many rendering engines.

Browsers are not easy to do. Billions of web pages and uneven Code give independent developers the opportunity to design their own browsers. Therefore, companies with the ability to design browsers are always a small number of vendors. In fact, today, we only have four main browser rendering engines: Trident (IE), Gecko (Mozilla, Firefox), WebKit (Chrome, Safari), and Presto (Opera ), many browsers are built on these rendering engines. This means that no matter what kind of device, we don't have to worry about what kind of browser it uses. No matter what kind of device, as long as it has a browser, there will be an environment that can run HTML5. Standard date available?

Ian Hixie is the most popular saying about the time when HTML5 became a standard:

"It is estimated that HTML5 will not form W3C recommendation standards until 2022"

However, although the formation of standards is still waiting for time, browser vendors are already implementing various HTML5 functions.

Function Test vs browser Test

If you are a developer, you can use those advanced features, but you need to perform Function Testing and provide progressive design. There are a large number of function test libraries, such as Modernizer. In addition, Mark Pilgrim has a list that allows you to detect any function.

Offline API

Offline API is the foundation of all HTML5 applications. It is not just about offline data. For developers, local storage is naturally good, but how to make programs run completely offline? Application Cache is the answer. If you cannot save source files and data offline, you cannot implement offline HTML5 applications.

We currently have several offline storage mechanisms, such as localStorage and SQL storage engines, which are supported by some browsers. The latest star is Indexed Database, it is supported by all mainstream browsers. These offline application and data storage capabilities are the foundation of HTML5. Currently, Webkit and Firefox can be implemented, and IE9 will be implemented soon. Instant IE9 support also needs to wait. Think about the scenarios where offline applications are most needed. Naturally, smart phones and Netbooks are used. Most smartphones use Webkit.

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