HTML Will Be a Standard at Last

ENT, August 20, 1997 by Mark McFadden

The evolution of HTML and embedded scripting languages has been central to the huge success of Web technology. Unfortunately, that evolution has been the source of countless headaches for Web designers. Competing and incompatible versions of HTML and scripting languages lead Web designers to create pages that anticipate and adapt to competing browser implementations. Fortunately, those days will soon be over.

For starters, the scripting language controversy is nearly dead. In June, the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), a European communications standards organization based in Geneva, developed a standard Web scripting language out of the competing JavaScript and JScript languages. The result -- which has the tongue-twisting but neutral name of ECMAscript -- is a standard client-side scripting language for active content on the Web. A standard, scripting language is a great relief, but even better is the release of a public draft of the next Web markup language: HTML V4.0.

In the past, browser manufacturers were the tail that wagged the HTML dog. As nonstandard HTML extensions were implemented in browsers, and promoted by Netscape Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp., inconsistencies arose and the "standard" evaporated. When version 3.0 of HTML was released in draft form, the Web community was unable to reach consensus on what features the language should have. The result was that the people whose job it was to ratify the standard couldn't agree and simply gave up trying. As David Siegel, president of Studio Verso, a Web design studio in San Francisco, says, "When browser manufacturers decide to create their own tags, we and our clients pay the price."

The new draft represents a radical departure from the usual method of developing an HTML standard. Critical constituents, including natural rivals Microsoft, Netscape and Sun Microsystems Computer Co., all cooperated in developing the standard. They had little choice: Without an industrywide, interoperable standard, the vision of a vastly improved Web would be nothing more than a mirage.

In the past, each new version of HTML enhanced existing features and occasionally added new tools. The HTML V4.0 draft is different. HTML V4.0 is a radical change for the Web. Not only does it enhance existing features of text markup, but it also redefines the way the Web works.

HTML V4.0's most important benefit is interoperability. For the first time since the original definition of the language by Tim Berners-Lee, a single specification means that developers no longer have to create different versions of their documents for competing platforms. Despite being a draft document, HTML V4.0 has the most unified industry support of any Web standard.

The designers of the new standard have also finally taken the global nature of the Internet into account. The new standard allows documents to be written in any language and transported easily around the world. By using a standard, international character set, Web pages can now represent the entire range of international characters.

Many people experience the Web using a typical computer and Internet connection. HTML V4.0's architects considered the vast number of other possibilities, including hand-held devices, printers and other technologies that would make the Web accessible to those with physical limitations. A series of enhancements enable the Web to be accessible to a wider audience.

One of the key problems with previous versions of HTML was the difficulty of precisely establishing layout. The tables-spacers-and-GIFs strategy; of specifying layout was a disease that came from using a text markup language for page design. HTML V4.0 goes a long way toward eliminating this problem by removing layout specifications from HTML markup and putting them into style sheets. Style information can be added to any HTML element, included as a header to file document, or linked via an external style.

If interoperability is the most important part of the HTML V4.0 announcement, extensibility is possibly its most misunderstood. The new