
HTML 5.2 is done, HTML 5.3 is coming - gmemstr
https://www.w3.org/blog/2017/12/html-5-2-is-done-html-5-3-is-coming/
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bigtones
Don't be fooled. The W3C does not even set the standard for HTML5 - it's
developed by WHATWG and then periodically the W3C just makes a copy and throws
away all the GIT history and erases the acknowledgments section and publishes
it to keep themselves feeling relevant.

[https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/)

[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6825713/html5-w3c-vs-
wha...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6825713/html5-w3c-vs-whatwg-which-
gives-the-most-authoritative-spec)

~~~
andy_ppp
Oh man, how is this possibly legal? Can the WHATWG license their work in such
a way as to disallow this, if you want a fixed version number to test against
(which doesn’t actually make sense, as there is no reference implementation,
just various browser vendors that hopefully converge on and agreed
implementation) you can just fork your own version of the WHATWG html spec,
which will be more inline with browsers and have further bug fixes and
corrections.

~~~
h1d
Why? WHATWG doesn't make money with the spec itself, rather want it spread to
wider audience, so more are informed of the upcoming changes for smoother
deployment.

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naasking
Because that's just how copyright works. You can't erase attributions and
redistribute without permission.

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yuhong
I already suggested basing the W3C spec on the web developer edition of WHATWG
HTML as a compromise. In retrospect, the full spec was never a good fit for a
W3C REC in the first place. (you may remember the 2022 prediction)

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tobyhinloopen
I thought we dropped the "5" and continued with just "HTML" as a living
standard?

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yuhong
That is WHATWG not W3C. I don't like versioning HTML either, to be honest.

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artur_makly
so when do we expect to see mass browser adoption of this?

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kuschku
That’s the {amazing|horrifying} nature of this: Web Standards are all
descriptive. The standard is only written _after_ the majority of browsers
already shipped it, and enough major sites rely on it.

(Of course, this means by the point that you actually get to have a discussion
about standards, you can’t really change anything more, and all standards
committees, from WHATWG to W3C, are just rubberstamping whatever the browser
vendors want)

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domenicd
Here is my reply the last time this concern came up:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15927069](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15927069)

~~~
kuschku
I can recommend to read this comment chain as well, IMO it shows the arguments
of both sides very well (and avoids us having to re-argue this every time).

