In this blog post I will discuss briefly the importance of HTML 5 and how to create standards compliant HTML code.
HTML 5 is the latest version of HTML that is currently supported on all major web browsers. It is widely used in the development of not only web sites but also mobile applications and even desktop applications. For example Windows 10 has built in apps that can be created using simple HTML and JavaScript. HTML 5 can provide a unified programming language that can be used to create applications that can run on a wide range of devices.
HTML 5 provides built in support for many of the features that previously required third party libraries. For example video and audio are supported by default in HTML 5. We no longer need to learn third party libraries in order to embed video and audio.
W3C is an international organization whose main job is to create Web Standards such as HTML 5. The W3C HTML 5 specification describes the correct syntax of HTML 5. Code that is written according to these specifications is considered to be correct and well written.
W3C has a web based tool on http://validator.w3.org/. It allows us to see if our code conforms to W3C standards. HTML 5 code that conforms to standards will be supported by more devices and its performance is easier to predict. It will also be easier to process by automated tools such as search engines.
One of the main differences between HTML 5 and previous version of HTML is that HTML 5 disallows the use of tag attributes related to styling. e.g table width. These attributes need to be expressed using CSS. With a little practice it should be easy to write standards compliant HTML 5 code. The W3 Schools website is a useful resource for learning about HTML 5.