When can we expect to see HTML 5 support for all the major browsers?
A:
In the future I think.
Beign more serious we can't predict it even with very big error range. 5 years? Will IE conform all the rules correctly? Noone knows.
Tomasz Kowalczyk
2010-09-10 22:12:47
Actually, I think it's pretty safe to say IE will *not* conform to all the rules until at least at least 2020.
Computerish
2010-09-10 22:15:17
If it ever will ;]
Tomasz Kowalczyk
2010-09-10 22:23:47
@Computerish, I'm not sure why it's safe to say that. IE 9 is very different from previous incarnations of IE, and the IE team has pretty deeply and genuinely embraced both standards support and interoperability, casting off years of rejection in one fell swoop. If you mean to say you don't anticipate widespread adoption of IE 9 until 2020, that might be more realistic.
eyelidlessness
2010-09-10 22:25:27
I'm all for IE 9 being a departure from the past, but I'm pretty sure I've heard that about every version of IE starting with IE 7. That said, if IE 9 proves me wrong, I'm all for that.
Computerish
2010-09-10 22:29:20
+2
A:
You can check http://html5readiness.com/ for browser support, however businesses which use IE7 will obviously not be compatible as older browsers will not be supported.
Gazler
2010-09-10 22:14:23
+1
A:
From the WHATWG FAQ(which is one of the organizations that deals with HTML5:
Different parts of the specification are at different maturity levels. Some sections are already relatively stable and there are implementations that are already quite close to completion, and those features can be used today (e.g. ). But other sections are still being actively worked on and changed regularly, or not even written yet.
The WHATWG previously estimated HTML5 would become a Candidate Recommendation in 2012 and Recommendation is 2022 (or later)
Also, as seen in here, some expected in 2007 that HTML5 would become a Recommendation in 2010 Q3. I don't see it happening so soon, though.
luiscubal
2010-09-10 22:21:26
A:
It's impossible to predict when all of HTML5 will be available in all major browsers, across all users.
And it isn't all that useful to think about, either. If you just want to use <canvas>, it doesn't really matter when IE implements <input type=date>, does it?
What is more useful is to ask when specific features will be ready, across all of the major browsers. A site that I like for tracking that is When can I use..., which lists a rough indication of which browsers are compatible with which features (some HTML5, some CSS3, some other specs or not even specced at all). HTML5 Readiness presents the same information, in a prettier but in my opinion less readable fashion.
Because of the fact that it doesn't really make sense to ask when an entire spec will be fully implemented by all browsers, the WHATWG (originator of the HTML5 spec, and co-owner of it along with the W3C) has moved to an process without specific versions; the WHATWG is now simply adding features slowly, and letting browsers implement them at the pace that they implement them, without worrying about whether any given browser implements the whole spec.
Brian Campbell
2010-09-10 22:33:53
"it doesn't really matter when IE implements <input type=date>, does it?" - It does. The main thing I wait for in HTML5 area is all HTML5 inputs to be implemented in all major browsers (I hope they are going to be designed well enough to forget all those hand-made scaffolds).
Ivan
2010-09-10 22:53:55
@Ivan That was just an example. I was saying that if you only care about `<canvas>`, you don't care about `<input type=date>`. And if you only care about the new input types, then you probably don't care about subtitle support in `<video>`. While there are some groups of features that go together (like all of the new input types, or all of the new sectioning elements), there are a lot of features that are independent, and asking when *everything* will be done in *all* browsers doesn't make much sense.
Brian Campbell
2010-09-10 23:03:35