This article has discussed the details regarding HTML5 and the possible reasons it has succeeded in replacing Adobe Flash Player, XHTML, Silverlight, and several other platforms. HTML5 is currently considered the most versatile and safest solution available on the web. So, let us discuss it in detail, the most extensively used markup language, and how it has made its way into web development.
What is HTML5?
HTML5 is the newest iteration of the Hypertext Markup Language, which was developed in 1989 by the World Wide Web inventor, Sir Tim Berners Lee. HTML is responsible for the structural presentation of content over the web pages. It is maintained by vendors of significant web browsers like Google, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla.
How HTML5 Works?
HTML5 offers all three major components needed for web designing – HTML (needed for text creation on web pages), CSS (for the presentation of the content), & JavaScript (for interactive web pages construction and is responsible for the behavior of the client-side pages). These three core components help the developers create responsive web pages. These webpages can easily fit on any desktop screen as they rearrange themselves automatically according to the screen size of devices on which they are getting accessed. Be it laptops, desktops, or smartphones, they can easily fit irrespective of the screen size, ratio, and resolution.
Technologies it has Replaced
HTML5 was initially released in 2008, for replacing HTML4 as well as DOM Level 2 HTML & XHTML 1. However, its major update came in 2014; however, W3C ceased working on it due to its ease-of-development and versatility and recommended it as the web development’s future.
However, at present, there are less than 0.035% of sites that are using Silverlight, only 2.5% are using Adobe Flash, and less than 0.017% are using Java. The rest of the websites have moved to HTML5.
HTML5 Browser Support
All the modern-day browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and Safari, have support for at least a few elements of HTML5 on all of their supported platforms. But if you will dig deeper, you will notice that Firefox is the largest supporter of many HTML5 features, and Chrome is following it.
The browsers that support HTML5:
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Chromium, Opera Mobile. GNOME Web, Konqueror, and Android Browser. You can visit the website www.caniuse.com for getting detailed infographics about the features supported by each browser as listed above.
Advantages of HTML5
There are several reasons why HTML5 is preferred over other web development tools. HTML5, when compared to other markup languages, is easy to code and offers rich built-in multimedia features ensuring that the developers don’t need other browser plugins or software for constructing a website. HTML5 offers designers access to develop almost all kinds of multimedia features, animations, and applications.
Being a non-proprietary language, you don’t have to pay royalties for using HTML5. The technology is platform-agnostic and can be used for rendering websites on Linux, iOS, Windows PCs, Android, and Mac. It can be used to render websites on smart TVs as well.
HTML5 lets the developers use prominent features like a camera, GPS, accelerometer, and more while they are constructing web apps. The elements like drag-and-drop tools, chat platforms, discussion boards, and more can easily be added to the websites using HTML5. HTML5 also lets web developers port the apps to their smartphones.
Conclusion
These were the details regarding HTML5 and why that offers a seamless browsing experience to the users. On the other hand, it also lets the developers easily create an impressive feature-rich website. No doubt because it has replaced Flash and Silverlight.