How to cope with HTML5's dueling standards bodies

How to cope with HTML5's dueling standards bodies Pay no attention to those chattering consortia -- when it comes to charting a course for HTML adoption, the browser is the new standard. The nice thing about standards is there are so many of them to choose from. That old chestnut, attributed to any number of different parties, has been in circulation since long before there was an Internet, but it still speaks volumes to the curious situation developing today: [ Get your websites up to speed with HTML5 today using the techniques in InfoWorld's HTML5 Deep Dive PDF how-to report. | Learn how to secure your Web browsers in InfoWorld's "Web Browser Security Deep Dive" PDF guide. ] [ Read 'em and weep: 5 ways your ISP is screwing you. | 5 more ways your ISP is screwing you. | Cut to the key news in technology trends and IT breakthroughs with the InfoWorld Daily newsletter, our summary of the top tech happenings. ] With multiple, parallel versions of HTML in use; a slew of different browsers in play, all of which implement those HTML versions slightly differently; and two separate standards-setting bodies directing traffic, the World Wide Web looks to have any number of possible futures. For those of us in IT -- the people, after all, who have to deploy, test and support the browsers and systems everyone uses -- the decisions of the World Wide Web Consortium and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group are more than just academic, and they raise some sticky questions. How should we go about supporting browsers that are becoming more fluid, with point revisions every few weeks instead of every several months to a year? And how do we tap all of HTML's new, evolving functionality without breaking existing designs or compatibility? To answer those questions -- and chart a course for HTML evolution in murky waters -- it helps to know a bit of background about these august institutions. In this corner, W3C MORE LIKE THIS What to expect from HTML5 HTML: The standard that failed?