Comments on: Why designers should care about HTML5

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:18:20 +0000

If you're a HTML author and just want to know about the available tags in HTML and when / where / how to use them, there's a much shorter document at the W3C just for that particular purpose: http://dev.w3.org/html5/markup/

By: Ryansway

Ryansway — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:20:12 +0000

We keep several different machines here, pc’s and mac’s, for testing client code on different platforms and browsers to ensure code renders correctly.

Most of our client’s are blue chip organizations with alexa ranks under 100k and PR beyond 5, so we’ve continued to make the investment in different machines so that we can absolutely guarantee our code has been tested on all browsers and platforms in use.

The machine I’m using right now is an imac with osx 10.3.9 and FF 2.0.0.12 (not pre 1.9b5). FF can’t upgrade to FF 3 on this machine without upgrading to Tiger, which is fine because we use this machine to check code rendering in FF2.

I just checked out html5gallery, and none of the sites rendered correctly. In fact, all the sites looked darn awful – including this site which looks completely broken. I’m surprised that some developers appear to be marching ahead with html5 while not all browsers support it, and while it’s still in development. I’m even more surprised that html5 sites aren’t detecting browsers and providing an alternative code which is tested to work in the browsers that don’t support html5, which is just as bad as ignoring the needs of IE6 and providing browser specific style sheets for tweaking rendering issues.

We’re as excited as the next person about html5, but, we’re not going to “go there” until the standard is officially finalized and browser support doesn’t present as many issues. I believe even IE needs a chrome window for html5 video to work, and not many consumers are going to know about that. If any of the html5gallery sites had detected the browser I was using, then they certainly did nothing to address FF2′s lack of html5 support, or whatever they did do, didn’t make a difference.

Perhaps there needs to be a greater emphasis on the importance of providing alternative code for browsers which don’t support html5? It’s frightening to see site after site looking like they were coded incorrectly by amateurs.

By: Catherine Azzarello

Catherine Azzarello — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:15:34 +0000

I’ve been using HTML5 (just the simple stuff, like in my last two sites. I’m liking it. And you’re right, as a designer, the bright lights of CSS3 are really what’s attractive!

Since I’m using both, ‘validation’ is a game I play.

I’m also using the H5 WordPress theme (unstyled, but HTML5 setup) by Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr. Lovin’ it!

By: MzGray

MzGray — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:41:01 +0000

The validator I know and trust exclusively is from the W3C and it gave your site 1 error, 2 warnings. By your response I surmised there is more than one validator out there. First, I googled html validator; several of them rendered many errors that were too many to count. Then, I searched for html 5 validator. After plugging in your web address to the handful listed at the top of the search page, they gave a minimum of 1-2 errors each.

Bottom line: I still believe passing validation with flying colors is the way to go. But in my research and reading expert opinions about the subject, I’ve found its not worth the hassle to sweat 1 or 2 validation errors. I recently found out Google uses HTML 5 and their validation rate is abysmal, IMHO. If they aren’t sweating 41 errors, and 2 warning via the W3C validator, then I guess it’s just a matter of preference. Besides they get millions of hits every day and those errors definitely has not hurt their bottom line.

Cheers!

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:05:27 +0000

@MzGray

Which validator are you using? The only error I’m getting is caused by the sociable plugin which is out of our control.

In addition, as Bruce pointed out recently our use of section is incorrect and as such we’ll be updating our theme accordingly. You have to bear in mind that the spec is changing regularly and sometimes it is difficult for us to keep up (and reflect that in our markup). You also have to bear in mind that the validator isn’t always up to date because of the changing spec.

Hope that clears things up a little.

Rich

By: MzGray

MzGray — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:14:05 +0000

I’m interested in learning more about HTML 5. The new features seem cool. And since I’m new to coding the timing to learn it is perfect, IMHO. One thing about this site intrigues me…

The tagline states: “Helping you implement HTML5 today”. How can you make that assertion when this site does not validate???

By: stelt

stelt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:43:00 +0000

you forgot SVG

By: Gonzalo

Gonzalo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:36:07 +0000

@simong: I think you’re a little confused about what an API is.

By: Dylan Spurgin

Dylan Spurgin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:25:01 +0000

I applaud all of the folks who are working to make HTML5 a superior standard. That said, when I read lines such as “there can’t be many [designers] left who no longer have an opinion on [html5]” I feel like there is a good bit of disconnect between those writing the specs and those using them.

Maybe it’s just that everyone’s opinion is “I’ll figure it out when I have to but today I have work to do”.

By: Paolo

Paolo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:28:57 +0000

Actually, every web designers should care about code and markup and, yes, HTML5 is another chance for them to take control of the whole web experience. Sadly, after all this standardistas years there is people who still think that ‘visualization’ is the only matter.