Problem
What are the primary distinctions between HTML4 and HTML5 draft?
Please limit your responses to changes in syntax and html components that have been added or removed.
Asked by deepwell
Solution #1
HTML5 includes a number of goals that set it apart from HTML4.
The most important is error handling that is consistent and defined. HTML, as you may know, offers ‘tag soup,’ or the ability to write erroneous code and have it transformed into a valid document. The issue is that no one has laid down the guidelines for doing so. When a new browser vendor wants to get into the market, all they have to do is test faulty documents in several browsers (primarily Internet Explorer) and reverse-engineer their error handling. Many pages will not appear correctly if they don’t (estimates place roughly 90 percent of pages on the net as being at least somewhat malformed).
As a result, HTML5 is seeking to uncover and codify this error handling so that browser developers may all standardize and save time and money by displaying things consistently. In addition, historians may want to read our documents long after HTML has died as a document format, and having a fully specified parsing method would make this much easier.
HTML5’s secondary purpose is to improve the browser’s capacity to act as an application platform by using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Many elements that are currently (in HTML4) Flash or JS-based hacks have been added directly to the language, such as
Many other smaller efforts are taking place in HTML5, such as better-defined semantic roles for existing elements (strong> and em> now mean something different, and even b> and I have vague semantics that should work well when parsing legacy documents) and the addition of new elements with useful semantics – article>, section>, header>, aside>, and nav> should replace the majority of div>s used on a web page, making your pages a bit more semantic, but Instead of a tedious scan to see what that odd /div> is closing, you’ll have an obvious /header> or /article>, making your document’s structure much more intuitive.
Answered by Xanthir
Solution #2
From Wikipedia:
Answered by Christian Davén
Solution #3
HTML5 includes a variety of APIs that aid in the development of Web apps. These can be used in conjunction with the new application elements:
Answered by Viktor
Solution #4
For a complete list of differences, see HTML5 Differences from HTML4: W3C Working Group Note 9 December 2014. Many new elements and element properties have been added. Some elements have been eliminated, while others have a different semantic value.
There are other APIs developed, such as the use of canvas, to aid in the development of the next generation of web apps and ensure uniform implementations.
Answered by Zach
Solution #5
This list of HTML5 elements and attributes might be of interest to you.
It’s also worth noting that it’s “HTML 4” rather than “HTML4”. Both forms are utilized in HTML 5, however there is a significant variation in semantics. HTML 5 refers to the name of the W3C specification, whereas “HTML5” refers to the document type of HTML files that use the text/html MIME type and adhere to the specification. The distinction between XHTML 5 and XHTML5 is the same.
Answered by Mathias Bynens
Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/134727/whats-the-key-difference-between-html-4-and-html-5