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However, that's not to say that there is nothing new happening in the markup world. The effort has switched from the W3C to a new group called WHATWG [whatwg.org], or the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. The group is backed by all the major players (apart from Microsoft), including the Mozilla Foundation, Opera Software, Apple inc. and Google inc.
The current work done at WHAT-WG is the Web Applications 1.0 specification [whatwg.org], otherwise known as HTML 5. The aim of HTML 5 is to become a direct successor to HTML 4.01, and remain compatible with the older standard. HTML 5 will introduce new features, but the markup should function (with extra scripting) or degrade gracefully in legacy browsers, including IE6. One primary aim for HTML 5 is in relation to web applications such as ecommerce sites. For example, the Web Forms 2.0 [whatwg.org] subsection is a significant extension of HTML 4 forms:
Web Forms 2.0 (...) provides new strongly-typed input fields, new attributes for defining constraints, a repeating model for declarative repeating of form sections, new DOM interfaces, new DOM events for validation and dependency tracking, and XML submission and initialization of forms.
You can view the draft specification (very much a work-in-progress) of the Web Applications 1.0 here:
[whatwg.org...]
You can also check out some of the demos [whatwg.org] of some of the features in Web Forms 2.0.
HTML 5 could represent a revolution in building modern, interactive websites, where advanced controls and complex forms will become extremely useful tools for website development. But as the specification is very much a work in progress, why not have your say?
So, you're a web developer, you build ecommerce sites, forums, blogs, ... You have a blank canvas, no special knowledge is required to post your ideas. :) What do you want to do with HTML that you can't do now?
What features do you want to see in "HTML 5"?
(...) like not placing <style> in the <body>
Why would it be an advantage to apply styles to the body using <style> rather than styling the elements directly (as we already do)
<body>
<h1 style="foo1">heading</h1>
<p style="foo2">content</p>
</body>
?
