May 2012 Meeting Report

At our May meeting, we began by listing the issues about using HTML5 that we are going to discuss for the remainder of this season.

We then took a side trip to look at XML and consider if bringing that technology to websites was the goal of the W3C, as suggested by one commentator. We looked at some examples of using XML to handle information that is accessed through a browser:

•  ListGarden - a utility for converting HTML to XML for an RSS feed or for other platforms.
• Google Earth - Google's mapping program in which locations are plotted using KML, an XML-based language. A list of coordinates can be converted to that format using a free utility like csv2kml.
• GetSimple CMS - a content management system that uses an XML database instead of MySQL.

We will put it all together in June to come up with some guidelines about using HTML5.

May 2012 Meeting Announcement -- "X" - What the Web Might Have Been

Last month we briefly discussed XHTML and where the W3C was going with web standards before HTML5 came along. We started down a side track to look at XML and to consider where the web might have headed if development of the XHTML standard had continued.

This month, we will work a little more on XML with some examples of how it is used on the web today. We will then tie everything together to see where XHTML5 stands presently.

All of this will lead us to  the conclusion we are working toward -- what do I use now and why? We will have that answer by the time we break for the summer.