“XHTML 2 Dies a Lonely Death Makes Room For HTML 5” and other links…
Webmonkey: “In fact, it’s considerably clearer than it used to be, and there’s certainly no reason to panic over the death of XHTML 2.0. The supposed successor to XHTML 1.x and the markup language that was once hailed as the next evolutionary step for the web has for all intents and purposes been dead for years. All the W3C has done is give it a proper headstone. And with the burial complete, the W3C can put all its efforts into the real future of the web — HTML 5. …However, HTML 5 already addresses most the those issues, and it allows you to use either the closed syntax of XHTML 1.x or the open syntax of HTML 4. That means that your well-formed XHTML 1.x code can (in most cases) be converted to HTML 5 by simply changing the doctype. …XHTML 2.0 wasn’t simply an XML formulation of an HTML spec; it was a completely new spec that ignored the realities of web development in favor of semantic precision. Because of this, it failed to offer any compelling, practical new features.”
“Examining the HTML 5 Video Codec Debate”
Slashdot Technology Story: “Ars Technica has a great breakdown of the codec debate for the HTML 5 video element. Support for the new video element seems to be split into two main camps, Ogg Theora and H.264, and the inability to find a solution has HTML 5 spec editor Ian Hickson throwing in the towel.”
“HTML 5 Will Leave Video in the Air”
Linux Journal: “HTML 5 — the next generation of the language that defines the World Wide Web — has made great strides in the way browsers handle media. Rather than utilizing proprietary technologies like Flash or Silverlight, HTML 5 will implement audio and video tags that provide multimedia content outside the existing frameworks. For all its progress, however, it's now known that what the specification won't have is a standard video codec.”
“HTML 5 drops open source video codec”
ZDNet Asia: “HTML 5 will no longer specify Ogg Theora as its video codec, the Google employee who maintains the burgeoning Web-coding standard has announced. Ian Hickson wrote last week that he was reluctantly dropping the open standard due to opposition from Apple and said the rival H.264 codec could also not be specified due to opposition from other browser vendors. This means HTML 5 will not specify a single codec for Web development.”
“XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5”
W3C: “2009-07-02: Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009, the charter will not be renewed. By doing so, and by increasing resources in the HTML Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate the progress of HTML 5 and clarify W3C's position regarding the future of HTML. A FAQ answers questions about the future of deliverables of the XHTML 2 Working Group, and the status of various discussions related to HTML.”
“HTML 5 Parsing”
John Resig: “One of the biggest wins of the HTML 5 recommendation is a detailed specification outlining how parsing of HTML documents should work. For too many years browsers have simply tried to guess and copy what others were doing in hopes that their parser would work well enough to not cause too many problems with HTML markup found in the wild. …While some parts of HTML 5 are certainly more contentious than others - the parsing section is one that is almost universally appreciated by browser vendors. Once browsers start to implement it users will enjoy the improved compatibility, as well.”