
Why You Should Learn HTML5 Now Before It Explodes In Popularity - kaaist
http://www.diygenius.com/why-you-should-learn-html5-now-before-it-explodes-in-popularity/
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toastedzergling
I feel HTML5 today's "Web 2.0" of a few years ago. It's an overblown term that
doesn't really capture what it is. CSS3 is cool. Canvas is cool. More native
video is cool, I guess. The other new html elements are... ok... but quite
frankily I'm fine with <div>s and changing them to <sections> seems annoying
more so than helpful. HTML5 doesn't seem to bring anything radically new; most
of what it allows could be done before, just with more workarounds and quirks.
It's being hyped up as some next great thing, and not really a radical new
development, it's much more incremental really.

And plenty of people are still using IE8 and Windows XP, and will for the next
few years, so I don't think it's really more critical to learn HTML5 than over
HTML4. Actually, it's hardly even possible to learn one without the other.

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timrosenblatt
You should emphasize the "overblown term" part of that. Non-engineering-types
who say HTML5 aren't literally talking about the W3C's HTML5 spec in
isolation. What they _mean_ is "frontend web technology". Non-engineers lump
Backbone.js and HTML5 in the same bucket.

<section> tags have nothing to do with a normal person's understanding of
HTML5. :)

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da_n
> If there was one programming language I’d recommend to learn for the long-
> term, it is HTML5.

I would recommend going a step further and learning Object Oriented HTML5, no
point just learning to program in plain HTML5. /s

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_sabe_
I hear CSS4 will be fully Turing-compatible...

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krapp
_I hear CSS4 will be fully Turing-compatible..._

I need to go spend some time in the angry dome..

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wldlyinaccurate
I used to get upset about it, but now I've just come to accept that when
people talk about "HTML5", they don't mean HTML. They mean CSS3, JavaScript,
all of the APIs that come with the HTML5 spec, etc.

This graphic sums up pretty nicely what "HTML5" actually encompasses:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/HTML5-API...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/HTML5-APIs-
and-related-technologies-by-Sergey-Mavrody.png)

~~~
jol
To me it seems that the HTML5 is a bit feature-creep.The term "HTML5" in
layman's eyes is expanded by some new tech every 4-8 months, isn't it?

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bluetidepro
To "toastedzergling"'s comment also
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6007986](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6007986)),
the term "HTML5" seems to always be used in the wrong way. People use it as a
buzz word, when they don't actually realize what they are really describing.
In the context I usually hear it, they typically mean CSS3 or javascript
features, not actual HTML5 features.

While I think HTML5 does offer some exciting features, I also think people
need to know the differences between what HTML5 is and more importantly, what
it is not.

Because even the graphic they show in the article ( _“HTML5″ is currently the
#1 job trend based on the fastest growing keywords found in online job
postings..._ ) says just how recruiters and job listings use that specific
term. 90% of the time I see that used, it's a keyword as just wanting you to
know general HTML, but they use the phrase HTML5 over "HTML" because it sounds
better.

For kicks, this site probably marks the biggest confusion that I always hear
with HTML5: [http://iscss3partofhtml5.com/](http://iscss3partofhtml5.com/)
_spoiler alert: NO._

EDIT: No clue why I'm being down-voted? As the perspective of a front-end
designer who just recently was very active in the job market, this was ALWAYS
the case. None of the companies were actually using true HTML5 features or
wanted to use true HTML5 features, they were just using CSS3 or jQuery.
Obviously it was just a recruiter trying to use buzz terms to describe knowing
general HTML.

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Ticktacks
I'd rather recommend learning to make Google Glass apps.

