HTML vs HTML5 : What is New in HTML5?

This comparison on HTML vs HTML5 is intended to provide a crisp knowledge about both the markup languages and guide you to find the suitable one if you are building your own web page or web development. This HTML vs HTML5 blog will provide you with a complete insight into the language in the following sequence:

• History of HTML
• Introduction to HTML & HTML5
• Comparison between the Two
• New Elements in HTML5

The history of the hypertext markup language is a strange and interesting tale. The man behind HTML, Tim Berners-Lee was putting together his first elementary browsing and authoring system for the Web and created a quick little hypertext language that would serve his purposes.

But the problem lied in the simplicity of the language. HTML was text-based and anyone could use any editor or word processor to create or convert documents for the Web. The developers started implementing new features in their browsers and started releasing advanced versions of HTML.

Now lets have a look at all the new elements that were added in HTML5 and the factors that make it better than HTML.

Let’s look at the factors we will be using for the comparison on HTML vs HTML5:

• Video & Audio
• Vector Graphics
• Storage
• Web Browser Support
• Ease of Use

The first factor in HTML vs HTML5 is the introduction of audio and video in HTML5. There was no such concept of media in case of HTML. But it is one of the integral part of the 5th Version.

Vector graphics was used in HTML with the help of various technologies such as VML, Flash, Silverlight etc. But it is an integral part of HTML 5 such as canvas and svg. This was a new addition to the revised version.

The third factor of comparison is storage. In case of HTML, we can use the browser cache as the temporary storage whereas in case of HTML5, application cache, web SQL database and web storage is used.

Now for the first version of HTML, all the old web browsers run smoothly for creating web pages. For HTML5, the new browsers have started supporting its specifications. Some of the browsers include mozilla firefox, chrome, opera etc.

While HTML5 does have risks like constant updates, it is generally easy to keep up with the changes and updates because of the simpler syntax as compared to other versions of HTML. For instance, you have a very simple declaration at the start of the page to set it as an HTML5 page, ie, the doctype declaration.

The comparison on HTML vs HTML5 also includes new elements and tags that have been added to the latest version. HTML5 comes with a number of new elements and eliminates several others. Some of the tags were discarded in the new HTML version and the usage of tags were changed accordingly.

Let’s have a look at some of the important tags that were added in HTML5:

The audio tag and the video tag are the two major additions to the HTML5. The audio tag and the video tag enables developers to embed music and audio on their website.The audio & video tags also have a number of attributes for additional controls.

<audio autoplay=”autoplay” controls=”controls”>
<source src=”music.ogg” />
<source src=”music.mp3″ />
</audio>

There are a few other multimedia attributes and elements that come with HTML5, like the track element that provides text tracks for the video element.

One of the key added elements in HTML5 is <canvas> which has hugely impacted the use of Adobe Flash in websites. The <canvas> element can be used to draw graphics with various shapes and colors via scripting, usually JavaScript. The element is simply a container for the graphics.

<canvas id=”myCanvas” width=”200″ height=”100″ style=”border:1px solid #000000;”>
</canvas>

Another big addition that HTML5 comes with are the new <header> and <footer> elements, indicating a new web anatomy. With these new tags, there is no longer a need to identify the two elements with a <div> tag.

<header>
<h1>Title </h1>
<div class=”post-meta”>
<p>By Author</a> <span class=”category”>Filed in Web 2.0</span></p>
</div>
</header>
<article>
<p>Body of text</p>
</article>

The footer is placed at the bottom of the web page but it can also be placed at the end of a page section.

<header>
<h1>Title </h1>
<div class=”post-meta”>
<p>By Author</a> <span class=”category”>Filed in Web 2.0</span></p>
</div>
</header>
<article>
<p>Body of text</p>
</article>

Given the fact that the web has changed into more just linked paged and documents, the <menu> tag is a welcome addition for greater web interactivity. It represents menu commands for simplicity in desktop and mobile applications.

<body contextmenu=”new-context-menu”>

<menu id=”new-context-menu” type=”context”>

<menuitem>Hello World</menuitem>

</menu>

</body>

Now with this, we come to an end of this comparison on HTML vs HTML5. I Hope you guys enjoyed this article and understood the difference between the two versions and how HTML5 is better and simpler in use. So, if you have read this, you might have a clear idea about which version of HTML you should opt for, while building your own web page. 

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