CSS3 is not HTML5

There’s been some talk here and there about whether or not it matters that many people tend to mean a lot more stuff than what is actually HTML5 when they say “HTML5”.

Despite being kind of nitpicky about terminology, I can buy bundling stuff like Geolocation, Web Storage, Web Workers, and Microdata with the actual HTML5 specification and calling it all “HTML5”.

But also bundling CSS3 (and even some parts of CSS 2.1) with HTML5? Nope. As Jeremy Keith puts it in Clarification:

Don’t get me wrong: I honestly don’t care that much about whether something like geolocation is technically part of HTML5 or not: that’s a fairly trifling matter. But CSS3? C’mon! In what universe is it in any way acceptable that a web developer wanting to learn about web fonts begins by Googling for HTML5?

Yeah, marketing new technology seems to always need a buzzword, like Ajax (which to most people means “visual effects created with JavaScript” instead of “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”). But I think we have to draw the line somewhere. Call me a pedant if you wish, but consider another quote from Jeremy first:

Clarifying what is and isn’t in HTML5 isn’t pedantry for pedantry’s sake. It’s about communication and clarity, the cornerstones of language.

Posted on August 23, 2010 in CSS, HTML 5

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