5

Everyone, every blog is talking about HTML 5 and giving solution to use HTML in all browsers including IE6.

  • Should we leave XHTML 1.0 now and go for HTML 5 and use JavaScript for IE6 support?
  • Does all other desktop/mobile browser except IE6 supports HTML 5 without adding JavaScript?
  • Will every browser render CSS written for HTML 5 elements?
  • What about Screen- readers?

What are pros and cons to choose HTML 5 for all new projects?

Jitendra Vyas
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  • possible dupes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1016515/html-5-early-adoption-where-possible-good-or-bad http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1188770/is-it-time-to-start-developing-with-html5 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/186264/is-it-time-to-start-using-html5 – N 1.1 Apr 04 '10 at 07:10
  • more dupes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5629/any-reason-not-to-start-using-the-html-5-doctype http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1933241/is-valid-html5-ok-to-use-now – Jørn Schou-Rode Apr 10 '10 at 09:15

3 Answers3

3

Pros:

  • It has some nice new features

Cons:

  • Support for those features is very thin on the ground
  • QA tools are immature compared to those for XHTML and HTML 4.x
  • The spec is still changing

Should we leave XHTML 1.0 now and go for HTML 5

I wouldn't. I'd stick to HTML 4.01.

and use JavaScript for IE6 support?

You need JS shims for more than IE6. I think IE8 might still require them - and that's for basic support for things like <article> just so you can apply CSS. Forget about <video> for the new form stuff.

Does all other desktop/mobile browser except IE6 supports HTML 5 without adding JavaScript?

No

A quick test shows that IE8 and Firefox 3.6 don't support <article> (IE8 doesn't appear to make it available for styling, Firefox styles it as display: inline by default)

Will every browser render CSS written for HTML 5 elements?

Not without JS hacks.

What about Screen- readers?

Most will not be able to do anything useful with the new elements

Quentin
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  • liked your answer. and i will still stay with XHTML. I think pros are not big to use HTML 5 for now. Thanks.and still it's not screen reader compatible. – Jitendra Vyas Apr 04 '10 at 07:22
  • although i found a favor in this http://blog.honustudios.com/2010/01/why-we-chose-html5-and-css3/ – Jitendra Vyas Apr 04 '10 at 07:35
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See also http://html5doctor.com/how-to-use-html5-in-your-client-work-right-now/

Wei Hu
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XHTML works with the HTML5 doctype and you need to change nothing as long as you are serving it as application/xml+xhtml and are using the HTML5 doctype.

Rob
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