How long will it take for html5 and css3 to go from a web developers wet dream to a full blown reality?
I see articles all the time on smashing magazine and various other web developer sites claiming that the future is css3/html 5, even some claiming the future is now. I can not dispute that html5/css3 is here and it is the future, what i can dispute is the future is most certainly not now.
The issue that concerns me most is the smartphone(iphone/android/blackberry etc) they are being used to access the web more and most of them use a html5/css3 native web browser.
Do you remember the Netscape vs IE browser war i smell a rat.
DUN, DUN, DUN, IE!
- IE9 has html5 and css3 support wonderful.
- IE8 has limited css3 support no media queries not sure about hml5 and i see no point in looking the answer is usually the same.
- IE7 has barely anything.
- iE6 lol (hopefully will drop to less than 4% in use soon, so i can stop supporting this steaming pile of crap).
Ie9 at this moment is still in beta and only available to windows 7 users. These users are currently a minority in comparison to the rest.
The only methods i see working is to implement server side to client side degradation or java script interpretation.
How would this work?
SERVER SIDE DEGRADATION
- Build front end specifically to work with html4 and css2 with javascript where applicable to cover some nice effects.
- Build seperate front end to work with html5 and css3.
Pros
- Guaranteed to work neatly in all cases.
- Using MVC architecture may be easy to implement by modifying the view controller.
- Valid code.
Cons
- Would be a nightmare to maintain.
- Increase in deadlines and dev time (Alarm bell ringing yet).
- Noticeable differences in front end per browser.
JAVASCRIPT INTERPRETATION
Using JavaScript to replace css3 effects and html5 tags. I have no doubt their is a JavaScript library that can do this already or in the coming months some plucky developer will make this work. I will most likely go through at least 5 to 10 library’s skimming through the sewage of bad practice.
Pros
- Easy to maintain.
- Better solution than one above.
Cons
- Will most likely not work in all scenarios try a JavaScript css3 drop shadow replacement ie6 usually starts squeaking.
- VML will be used to do some effects for ie6 a high learning curve if you need to debug fast.
- Bad markup.
So what do we do?
I have no idea but am interested to read other views on this. Im not saying im right on what i have wrote here. What i am saying is IE is gonna cause us all hell again in the coming months.
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rachat credit · November 25, 2010 at 7:51 am
I have the same opinion with most of your points, however some need to be discussed further, I will hold a small discussion with my buddies and maybe I will look for you some opinion later.
- Henry
James · August 10, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I think you have to be careful about lumping HTML5 and CSS3 into the same hat, because they aren’t the same thing.
One of the best things about HTML5 is it’s compatibility. I don’t want to get over simplistic, but if you take a standards compliant XHTML doc and change the DTD in the header, you don’t need to do anything more to the rest of the page and it’s STILL compliant, but now it’s HTML5.
I always include modernizr.js anyway, because (from what I remember) it helps the browser recognise the new tags as block-level elements, (it helps with CSS3 stuff too, but more of that in a bit) and after that, the ability to get semantic on those tags is a great relief, saves precious kb’s, SPEEDS UP development time because co-developers can get to grips with your code quicker and creates a more accessible web for the future because it’s pretty obvious that the more semantic the web becomes, the easier it will be for web-applications to deliver a slicker web experience. Google and Bing already weights cleaner code over messy(ier) code, so it’s good for SEO too.
…not to mention it opens up the mobile web market (as if this is a small consideration!)
On top of all that, I’ve not yet come across a browser that has thrown a paddy because a site is HTML5.
There’s really no good reason to not use it, as far as I can tell, and if anyone can convince me otherwise, well, they’re welcome to try!
CSS3, that’s another kettle of fish entirely, isn’t it? I think it’s about progressive enhancement, not back-wards compatibility. The ability to offer to make your client’s site extra-nice on some computers, rather than phrasing it as having to make do with poor design compromises on others.
…And on your final line, IE is of course going to cause us hell, it always has and always will, but the sooner we can move away from that the better and flapping about whether to keep up with technology isn’t going to help as your competitor makes ground and the web becomes more mobile.