How would I know if I should consider HTML 5 for a specific project?

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+1 Q:

How would I know if I should consider HTML 5 for a specific project?

Possible Duplicate:
Is it time to start using HTML5?

We are just starting out with a project and do not know how to work with the possibilities around HTML 5. But we are hearing a lot of people starting to talk about it. Any advise would be much appreciated.

+1 A:

One thing you need to realize is that you're severely limiting your market if you do so. Sure, all newer browsers (FireFox 3.5+, newer Chrome versions, newer Safari and Opera versions, IE 9) will support it, but they make up a very small portion of the internet right now. Considering that IE still dominates, if you want a wide audience you'll need to do one of two things: Not use HTML5, or implement the site twice (HTML5 and some other tech like Flash).

But it all depends on your market. If you're targeting geeks, chances are pretty good that most of them will have an HTML5 enabled browser. If you're targeting business people, chances are pretty good that they won't (considering many companies rely on IE).

So it's not an easy answer. As time goes on, the adoption will only increase... So while it may be "cool" to be an early adopter, it may not make business sense (depending on intended audience)...

ircmaxell 2010-06-17 01:40:35

Thanks a lot man. Really really appreciate you taking the time to answer it so lucidly.

Manu 2010-06-17 01:41:54

“Considering that IE still dominates, if you want a wide audience you'll need to do one of two things: Not use HTML5, or implement the site twice (HTML5 and some other tech like Flash).” — That depends which part of HTML5 you’re using. You can switch to the HTML5 doctype immediately, for example, and you can use JavaScript to enable/emulate the new structural elements like `<section>` and the new form features. It sounds like you’re talking about `<canvas>`, which can just about be emulated in IE using JavaScript — see [explorercanvas](http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-03-30-n78.html).

Paul D. Waite 2010-06-17 13:45:54

@Paul D. Waite, yes you are correct. You can emulate at least some of the new behaviors with JS/CSS. However the point is that it's bloody slow to emulate the application tags (like `<canvas>`). If you're building a full blown application (which it sounds like the OP was), it's not going to be fast enough (IMHO at least, based on my testing) for anything remotely complex.

ircmaxell 2010-06-17 13:54:20

“it's bloody slow to emulate the application tags (like <canvas>)” Very true — as far as `<canvas>` goes, your answer is dead on. There’s just a lot more to HTML5 than `<canvas>` alone.

Paul D. Waite 2010-06-17 14:51:47

Quite true and that's a valid point. Are there any compatibility layers that exist to "backport" the rest of 5 into a non-5 browser (or implement missing pieces) so people don't need to experiment and hack one together themselves?

ircmaxell 2010-06-17 15:51:07

Not sure — for a lot of HTML5 features (e.g. new form widgets like the date selector), there isn’t one simple way to get them working in older browsers, you’d want to look at them individually. [Modernizer](http://www.modernizr.com/) is I think the leading library for detecting HTML5 and CSS3 features, and I believe it implements the trick to make `<section>` et al work in IE too. [Dive into HTML5](http://diveintohtml5.org/), specifically [Chapter 2](http://diveintohtml5.org/detect.html), has a good treatment and is likely to be updated.

Paul D. Waite 2010-06-22 00:26:34

And, just on the new form widgets, they behave sensibly in older browsers: they just default to being text fields, so they’ll still work, albeit not so flashily. That’s the nice thing about all the reverse-engineering-of-existing-browsers work that went into the spec.

Paul D. Waite 2010-06-22 00:29:06

ansaurus

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How would I know if I should consider HTML 5 for a specific project?

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