Add an HTML5/CSS3 (core) style

[allen]

Title:
Add an HTML5/CSS3 (core) style

Area:
styles

Summary:
We should put in a style, be it a customized style or a core style (core5?), that generates HTML5 code and uses CSS3 features. Since this wouldn't be universally supported, we should also available only on a beta/opt-in basis at first.

Description:
Ok, HTML5 isn't actually an official standard yet, but the latest versions of the major browsers support significant sections of it. Same with the various parts of CSS3 and WAI-ARIA. And while we wouldn't want to force everyone to upgrade their browsers, it would be nice for users and developers to have the option of trying out the new features.

In particular, I'd suggest that we build a single S2 layer that generates valid, semantically correct HTML5. We'd probably also need to update the Javascript on the pages to work with the new structure. We could even do a single page at a time, falling back on the default style if the HTML5 version of the page isn't available. This would give us time to standardize the page structures, accessibility requirements, etc., without having to worry about getting a working version of everything done.

Beta opt-in could be through the <a href = "http://www.dreamwidth.org/betafeatures">beta features</a> page. Only users who had opted in would see the new HTML5 pages. To make it simple, we'd probably want to have that value sticky everywhere, so that if you chose to see HTML5, you'd see it on all pages where it was available by default. (Though style=light or style=mine would probably still be available as an override.)

Poll #6688 Add an HTML5/CSS3 (core) style

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
21 (43.8%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (6.2%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (4.2%)

(I have no opinion)
22 (45.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[deborah]

Would it be reasonable to expect that somebody might want to use the HTML 5/CSS three style without using the new JQuery code? That is, that you might not want to use all the beta features at once, just because you want to use HTML 5? It's I'm thinking not; I'm thinking we would probably code with the assumption that if you are using HTML 5 you are using everything new.

Also, would we go for HTML 5/CSS three standards-compliance regardless of which standards are supported in which browsers? Would we look at stats and focus on the most widely used browsers among our user base? Or would we take the standards supported by the newest versions of Firefox/Exploder/Opera/Chrome/Safari etc., and focus on those?

[yvi]

I suppose the jQuery beta would probably be over by the time this suggestion gets tranferred and coded.

[foxfirefey]

I think we should make sure that core2 and all official styles should use some official HTML5 features, and be valid HTML. Making yet another core is really not a sustainable option.

CSS3 can already be used, and I believe some styles already use CSS3 features.

[matgb]

Aye--I think when HTML5 is finalised, we should move to that as our standard anyway as that seems to be where the industry is going. And there're definitely some styles using CSS3, I probably need to update some of my tweaks at some point, I know some of the browser specific stuff I'm using is now works-as-standard.

[deborah]

my understanding was that HTML 5 is not going to be finalized, per se, but will continue to be a moving target -- the whole living standard thing. Even within the more narrow framework of a stopping point, they are talking 2014 at best. I think we need to start moving to HTML 5 sooner than that.

[matgb]

Fair enough, I'd have no problem with that TBH, it's what I'm tending to code with these days when I think about trying to get my code good enough, I always forget to close things properly with XHTML anyway.

Basically, we should move to HTML5 as that appears to be the planned overall standard, but I know several people really like XHTML (I'm distinctly not one of them).

[foxfirefey]

As far as I know, if you write XHTML, it's pretty much valid HTML5.

[foxfirefey]

Also: need to be more clear on what CSS3 features we are talking about here? CSS3 is a means to an end as far as I know, not an end in itself like HTML5 would be.