Background for Web Design class

1. and a little bit of history

2.  You should know that we will be using a
combination of HTML 4.01 and HTML 5.
 Ten years ago HTML 4.01 was the newest
standard for the web and many sites were
coded using frames.
 Then the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
decided to move to XHTML/XML

3.  Or does it? XHTML and especially XML have
strict syntax in their coding. One author
called it "draconian."
 Web developers had little trouble adapting.
The problem was that the W3C wanted to
move to XHTML 2.0.
 This allowed no backwards compatibility,
which would render millions of web sites
unloadable.

4.  XHTML 2.0 rules would not allow for loading
of web pages if they had any mistakes.
 A small group of guys at Opera and Mozilla
decided that that was wrong.
 So, due to this up-swelling of resistance
against XHTML 2.0…
 HTML 5 was "born."
 And in 2009 the W3C stopped work on
XHTML 2.0 and went to HTML 5.

5.  HTML 5 is based much more on HTML 4 and
its versions.
 Therefore, we will be using a combination of
the two.
 HTML 5 does not break any existing web
pages and it gets away from proprietary
applications like Flash.
 This makes the web more democratic. We are
not beholden to Adobe or Microsoft.

6.  This is an elementary web design course and
so we will learn a combination of HTML 4 & 5.
 HTML 5 is perfect for forms, apps, audio, and
video, which we will not be covering.
 So, the hope is that you will take what you
learn in this course and run with it. Once you
understand the basics, you can go out there
and experiment and teach yourself.

7.  HTML 5 is still evolving.
 You can see the design principles for yourself
at:
 http://www.w3.org/html-design-principles
 Oh, and the more you read about it, the more
you'll see that Steve Jobs really is a visionary!