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Microsoft Suggests Carving Up HTML 5

Posted by timothy on from the slice-and-dice dept.

dp619 writes "HTML 5 is extensive and may take years to complete. Microsoft's solution to hasten its development is to carve it up. The company wants to divide HTML 5 into sub-specifications overseen by different working groups. Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson said that HTML 5 features including its Canvas APIs, offline caching of Web applications' resources, persistent client-side data storage, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networking connection framework would be useful outside of HTML. The WC3 seems to be receptive to the idea and says that a consensus is forming among working group members to do just that."

2 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. "Here Microsoft, go play with your ball." by peipas · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I think Microsoft should be required to finish WinFS before being trusted with a component of HTML 5.

  2. Considering their history? by mattr · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Considering they are a convicted monopoly and seem to be involved in something fishy with standards bodies over OOXML, it is awfully hard to give MS the benefit of the doubt as other posters suggest.

    It seems to me that dividing up HTML 5 into different pieces means it will be much harder for a single person trusted by the community to oversee all of their activity. There will be only so many staunch people available. If divided into 5 sections then there might be 5 times as much paperwork. It will favor a giant company that is able to push 5 or 10 times as many people onto the project. If they choose to invest MS could create 5 different blogs and 5 or more FUD streams. It will be like having 5 small countries' standards bodies, each meeting in a disused room in the back of a library, instead of one major sized standards body that will become the sole focus of a massive campaign for transparency and reporting. So while splitting the job into pieces sounds like common sense, actually MS never does anything that is not in their best interest and in this case, while perhaps this might give them earlier targets for eye candy creation products using HTML 5, it will also give them much fatter, less well protected targets of FUD, skullduggery (I mean BRIBE$) and Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. It is a bad idea to do what MS wants in just about every case so far and that is not paranoia, it's called reading the news.