[XML-SIG] W3C HTML Activity page: HTML-NG

[Andrew Kuchling]

This doesn't really have any impact on the XML-SIG at this point in
time, but it's interesting as an indicator of future work, and it
means the W3C is embarking on a painful transition.  (It remains to be
seen if implementors and content developers will follow, of course...)

From http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Activity/ (dated June 22, 1998):

    At the Future of HTML Workshop held in San Jose, Califonia this April
   (1998), ideas for a next generation of HTML were discussed. By the end
   of the workshop it was agreed that further extending HTML 4.0 would be
   difficult, as would converting 4.0 to be an XML application. The
   proposed way forward was to make a fresh start with the next
   generation of HTML, based upon a suite of XML tag-sets.  ...

   HTML will itself be defined as
   a suite of XML tag sets, probably consisting of a "core" set, with
   other tag sets for representing document idioms such as headings and  
   paragraphs, relational data and forms, scalable graphics, multi-media,
   and so on. These tag sets will be able to be combined as necessary.
   
   There is no requirement to provide an upwards compatible route from
   "classic" HTML to the new generation, and some tags may not get a
   place in the new specifications.  Certain tags purely for
   presentational purposes, for example, may be discarded.

Geez, and I just wrote somewhere that "XML is almost certainly not
going to replace HTML."  

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.skyport.net/crew/amk/
Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as
good... luckily, it's not difficult.
    -- Charlotte Whitton