So what does HTML 5 have in store for theme designers? Well, a lot, but a lot that will be familiar.
Really, it mainly compiles a variety of things into one great package, without having to use javascript to do them *as frequently* as the past. For instance – a variety of media now have much easier embed codes than the traditional object tag route. Videos are now much easier to embed. It also presents a new golden age for search engines, using semantic layouts that screen readers and search engine bots alike can take full advantage of.
The secondary benefit is that HTML 5 takes full advantage of CSS3 styling. CSS3 supports some great properties, like the now-widely-accepted “border-radius” specification for pure-CSS rounded corners.
It also has a big tertiary benefit – HTML5 only supports one doctype (“<!doctype html>”) so there’s far less confusion in dealing with browser specifications and discrepancies.
Here are the less-than-Familiars:
- the “Aside” tagset. This is for sidebars that wrap around the main content area. You can think of this literally as a replacement for the traditional “<div id=’secondary’>” tagset and area
- Background image scaling! Finally, you can use CSS3 to set background sizes based on the actual window size. No more fumbly hacks to bring the background image into form, or using complicating background containers to set a background with.
and here are the familiars:
- “header” and “nav” tags. These familiar object IDs should be second-nature to most developers, so using them as tags themselves isn’t exactly a stretch.
- “section” tags. Section tags lay out, well, a section.
- “footer” tags. Instead of the omnipresent “<div id=’footer’></div> tag set, you can use <footer></footer>.
