By HTML5, I don’t mean the hyped up Everything But the Kitchen Sink HTML5 that has been peddled the last two years by various internet and technology companies, but I mean the semantic web markup language that is the successor to HTML 4.
I have spent the last few years watching as my early bleeding edge adopter friends have been talking about, blogging about, and writing about HTML5, all the while hearing fantastic claims from various members of the the tech related or marketing crowd. I have been somewhat skeptical, as I am a big fan of the stripped down, rigid framework of XHTML 1.0.
I like minimalism. I like my code separated from my presentation and behavior. HTML5 from the beginning looked like a big ole’ pot of jambalya rather than the straight, clean formalism of XHMTL. When the W3C announced that there would be no XHTML 2.0, I knew it was only a matter of time before I caved and joined the HTML5 bandwagon.
While that time has come for this blog to convert to HTLM5, my little XHTML/Python coding soul and typing fingers will most likely be still stripping down the code and working on how to get this blog really lean and mean, even if HTML5 is still in its early days and is not a full spec at this point.
Give me a few weeks to settle in with, tweak, and rummage around the new HTML5 code base, please be patient. I have tested it thoroughly on Mac & Ubuntu, but not on Windows. Right now I have only access to IE8, as my old 2004 Dell with a dual boot of IE6 and IE7 died on Tuesday and has gone off to e-recycling heaven.
If you have access to a PC with IE6 or IE7, please take a screen shot of the front page of the blog and of this page, and email the screenshots to me noting which version of Windows & which version of IE (ex: Win XP/IE6, Vista/IE7, etc). I am using Remy Sharp’s HTML5 shiv to make the code work in all versions of Internet Explorer, but if you see quirks, please let me know.
Over time, I am sure I will continue to explore HTML5 in more depth but right now, I am happy how this little experiment in transferring the markup of this blog from XHTML to HTML5 has gone.
Posts Tagged: html
DIY Programming: Should HTML be Required for Literacy in the 21st Century?
After I wrote last night’s post on “DIY Mobile Programming: Get Started with HTML, CSS, and Javascript“, I realized that I assumed that all of my readers who want to learn to create | develop their own mobile apps are already familiar with and design | develop in HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
This is after I shut off my computer and was on my way to bed, when I realized that maybe those of us in the web & mobile industries need to give more than lipservice to the idea of web education but is it time for all of us to consider that HTML should be apart of the canon of literacy.
Should HTML, in a basic form, be taught in primary school along with reading, writing, and arithmetic?
Yes, I do think it should. The internet, in all of its permutations, is in every aspect of our lives regardless if one lives in the developed or developing world(s). If we don’t teach the basics of the markup language of how to develop | create for the internet, then we are leaving literacy half-baked at best for the 21st Century, because if one does not understand the basic underpinnings of the internet, then one is illiterate to a major facet of 21st Century life.
The drive to increase literacy over the last 200 years has been more than making sure the most folks possible can read and write but it has also been the drive to give everyone the skills to participate on a more level playing field in society, as well as to open the opportunity for all of society to rise to the level of the educated. In every country where literacy has risen above 80%, poverty has decreased, self-sufficiency has increased, and the economy grows in proportion to the increase in literacy.
If you can learn to count to ten in another language, you can learn the 10 most used tags in HTML. If you can string to together a sentence or two in your native language, you can learn the semantics and grammar of HTML. With HTML, you are more than partially capable of creating simple pages and apps for the internet, be it mobile or desktop.
When one can create a page or alter a page in their care, then they are no longer audience, but a participant. No longer just a consumer, but a creator.
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Ms. Jen’s DIY Programming Series:
DIY Dev: Program or be Programmed
DIY Mobile Programming: Get Started with HTML, CSS, and Javascript
DIY Programming: Should HTML be Required for Literacy in the 21st Century?
DIY Mobile Programming: Get Started with HTML, CSS, and Javascript
“If you can build your app with HTML, CSS & JavaScript, then you probably should.” – @jonathanstark #wdx (via @garazi)
Some friends recently asked on Twitter what was the best way to start programming mobile apps with Nokia’s Qt, as they found that it was not as easy as the publicity from Nokia had purported Qt to be.
Anyone who has developed an application, be it for the desktop or mobile, can tell you that framework makes it so much easier, but easy is a relative term. What easy may mean is that development time is reduced from 6 months to 6 weeks or less. Still not that easy, but easier and a big relief.
For folks who want to learn to create and develop their own mobile apps, but don’t have much programming experience or little at all, I would like to suggest starting with developing a simple app in HTML, CSS, and Javascript to get your feet wet and see if you can get your idea up and running either as a mobile web app or as a native mobile app that is coded in HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
As I wrote in DIY Dev: Program or be Programmed a couple of weeks back, there comes a time when your own natural diy urge or curiosity or frustration with a lack of an app drives one to learn how to program a computer, server, or mobile phone so that the itch has been scratched.
Rather than get bogged down in the debate between mobile web apps and native apps, let me give a few links to resources out there to help get you started on creating your own mobile HTML, CSS, Javascript app be it for the mobile web or a native app:
Cross Platform HTML, CSS, Javascript Mobile Development Frameworks:
PhoneGap – http://www.phonegap.com/
Sencha – http://www.sencha.com/
JQuery Mobile – http://jquerymobile.com/
Qt Quick – http://qt.nokia.com/products/qt-quick/
Tutorials and Presentations:
Building Mobile Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
HOWTO: Create native-looking iPhone/iPad applications from HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Forum Nokia on Developing for the Mobile Web
Tips and Tricks for developing Mobile Widgets
Books:
Programming the Mobile Web
Beginning Smartphone Web Development: Building Javascript, CSS, HTML and Ajax-Based Applications
Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Have fun, get coding, and send us/ let’s us know what you have created.
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Ms. Jen’s DIY Programming Series:
DIY Dev: Program or be Programmed
DIY Mobile Programming: Get Started with HTML, CSS, and Javascript
DIY Programming: Should HTML be Required for Literacy in the 21st Century?