Editing HTML (section)

=== HTML draft version timeline ===
; October 1991 : ''HTML Tags'',<ref name="tagshtml" /> an informal CERN document listing 18 HTML tags, was first mentioned in public.
; June 1992 : First informal draft of the HTML DTD,<ref>{{cite web|last=Connolly|first=Daniel|title=MIME as a hypertext architecture |url=http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-talk/1992MayJun/0020.html|publisher=CERN|access-date=24 October 2010|author-link=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=6 June 1992}}</ref> with seven subsequent revisions (July 15, August 6, August 18, November 17, November 19, November 20, November 22)<ref>{{cite web|last=Connolly|first=Daniel|title=HTML DTD enclosed|url=http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-talk/1992JulAug/0020.html|publisher=CERN|access-date=24 October 2010|author-link=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=15 July 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Connolly|first=Daniel|title=document type declaration subset for Hyper Text Markup Language as defined by the World Wide Web project|url=http://lost-contact.mit.edu/afs/cern.ch/w3.org/www/Frame/fminit2.0/html.dtd|publisher=CERN|access-date=24 October 2010|author-link=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=18 August 1992|archive-date=14 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314055308/http://lost-contact.mit.edu/afs/cern.ch/w3.org/www/Frame/fminit2.0/html.dtd|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="html11">{{cite web|last=Connolly|first=Daniel|title=Document Type Definition for the Hyper Text Markup Language as used by the World Wide Web application|url=http://lost-contact.mit.edu/afs/cern.ch/w3.org/www/MarkUp/Connolly/921125/archive.sh#html.dtd|publisher=CERN|access-date=24 October 2010|author-link=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=24 November 1992|archive-date=18 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118155040/http://lost-contact.mit.edu/afs/cern.ch/w3.org/www/MarkUp/Connolly/921125/archive.sh#html.dtd|url-status=dead}} See section "Revision History"</ref>
; November 1992 : HTML DTD 1.1 (the first with a version number, based on RCS revisions, which start with 1.1 rather than 1.0), an informal draft<ref name="html11" />
; June 1993 : Hypertext Markup Language<ref>{{cite web|last1=Berners-Lee|first1=Tim|title=Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) Internet-Draft version 1.1|url=http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-iiir-html-00|publisher=IETF IIIR Working Group|access-date=18 September 2010|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee|first2=Daniel|last2=Connolly|author-link2=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=June 1993}}</ref> was published by the [[Internet Engineering Task Force|IETF]] IIIR Working Group as an Internet Draft (a rough proposal for a standard). It was replaced by a second version<ref name="ietfiiir">{{cite web|last1=Berners-Lee|first1=Tim|title=Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Internet-Draft version 1.2|url=https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/draft-ietf-iiir-html-01.txt|publisher=IETF IIIR Working Group|access-date=18 September 2010|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee|first2=Daniel|last2=Connolly|author-link2=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=June 1993}}</ref> one month later.
; November 1993: [https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/HTMLPlus/htmlplus_1.html HTML+] was published by the IETF as an Internet Draft and was a competing proposal to the Hypertext Markup Language draft. It expired in July 1994.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-raggett-www-html/history/|title=History for draft-raggett-www-html-00|website=IETF Datatracker|access-date=2019-11-18|date=1993-11-08|last1=Raggett|first1=Dave}}</ref><!-- Forms and input tags introduced -->
; November 1994: First draft (revision 00) of HTML 2.0 published by IETF itself<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berners-Lee|first1=Tim|title=HyperText Markup Language Specification – 2.0 INTERNET DRAFT|url=http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-html-spec-00|website=Internet Engineering Task Force |access-date=24 October 2010|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee|first2=Daniel|last2=Connolly|author-link2=Dan Connolly (computer scientist)|date=28 November 1994}}</ref> (called as "HTML 2.0" from revision 02<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-html-spec-02#section-1.1|title=Hypertext Markup Language – 2.0|last=Connolly |first=Daniel W.|website=tools.ietf.org|language=en|access-date=2019-11-18|date=1995-05-16}}</ref>), that finally led to the publication of {{IETF RFC|1866}} in November 1995.{{Ref RFC|1866}}
; April 1995 (authored March 1995) : HTML 3.0<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/|title=HTML 3.0 Draft (Expired!) Materials|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=December 21, 1995|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref> was proposed as a standard to the IETF, but the proposal expired five months later (28 September 1995)<ref name=html30cover /> without further action. It included many of the capabilities that were in Raggett's HTML+ proposal, such as support for tables, text flow around figures, and the display of complex mathematical formulas.<ref name=html30cover>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/CoverPage|title=HyperText Markup Language Specification Version 3.0|access-date=June 16, 2007}}</ref>
; : W3C began development of its own [[Arena (web browser)|Arena browser]] as a [[test bed]] for HTML 3 and Cascading Style Sheets,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/html3/html3.txt|title=HyperText Markup Language Specification Version 3.0|last=Raggett|first=Dave|date=28 March 1995|website=HTML 3.0 Internet Draft Expires in six months|publisher=[[World Wide Web Consortium]]|access-date=17 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bowers |first1=N. |chapter=Weblint: just another perl hack |chapter-url=https://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix98/freenix/bowers.pdf |title=1998 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC 98) |date=1998 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-link=Håkon Wium Lie|first1=Håkon Wium|last1=Lie|last2=Bos|first2=Bert|author-link2=Bert Bos|title=Cascading style sheets: designing for the Web|url=https://archive.org/details/cascadingstylesh00lieh|url-access=registration|access-date=9 June 2010|date=April 1997|publisher=Addison Wesley Longman|page=[https://archive.org/details/cascadingstylesh00lieh/page/263 263]|isbn=978-0-201-41998-6}}</ref> but HTML 3.0 did not succeed for several reasons. The draft was considered very large at 150 pages and the pace of browser development, as well as the number of interested parties, had outstripped the resources of the IETF.<ref name="raggett" /> Browser vendors, including Microsoft and Netscape at the time, chose to implement different subsets of HTML 3's draft features as well as to introduce their own extensions to it.<ref name="raggett" /> (See [[browser wars]].) These included extensions to control stylistic aspects of documents, contrary to the "belief [of the academic engineering community] that such things as text color, background texture, font size, and font face were definitely outside the scope of a language when their only intent was to specify how a document would be organized."<ref name="raggett" /> Dave Raggett, who has been a W3C Fellow for many years, has commented for example: "To a certain extent, Microsoft built its business on the Web by extending HTML features."<ref name="raggett" />
[[File:HTML5-logo.svg|thumb|right|upright|alt=Official HTML5 logo|Logo of HTML5]]
; January 2008 : [[HTML5]] was published as a [[World Wide Web Consortium#Certification|Working Draft]] by the W3C.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/|title=HTML5|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=June 10, 2008|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref>
; : Although its syntax closely resembles that of [[SGML]], [[HTML5]] has abandoned any attempt to be an SGML application and has explicitly defined its own "html" serialization, in addition to an alternative XML-based XHTML5 serialization.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/blog/2008/01/html5-is-html-and-xml/|title=HTML5, one vocabulary, two serializations|date=15 January 2008 |access-date=February 25, 2009}}</ref>
; 2011&nbsp;HTML5 – Last Call :
; : On 14 February 2011, the W3C extended the charter of its HTML Working Group with clear milestones for HTML5. In May 2011, the working group advanced HTML5 to "Last Call", an invitation to communities inside and outside W3C to confirm the technical soundness of the specification. The W3C developed a comprehensive test suite to achieve broad interoperability for the full specification by 2014, which was the target date for recommendation.<ref name="w3c2014">{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/2011/02/htmlwg-pr.html|title=W3C Confirms May 2011 for HTML5 Last Call, Targets 2014 for HTML5 Standard|publisher=[[World Wide Web Consortium]]|access-date=18 February 2011|date=14 February 2011}}</ref> In January 2011, the WHATWG renamed its "HTML5" living standard to "HTML". The W3C nevertheless continued its project to release HTML5.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.whatwg.org/html-is-the-new-html5|title=HTML Is the New HTML5|author=Hickson, Ian |website=The WHATWG Blog |date=January 19, 2011 |access-date=21 January 2011|archive-date=6 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006023430/https://blog.whatwg.org/html-is-the-new-html5}}</ref>
; 2012&nbsp;HTML5 – Candidate Recommendation :
; : In July 2012, WHATWG and [[W3C]] decided on a degree of separation. W3C will continue the HTML5 specification work, focusing on a single definitive standard, which is considered a "snapshot" by WHATWG. The WHATWG organization will continue its work with HTML5 as a "Living Standard". The concept of a living standard is that it is never complete and is always being updated and improved. New features can be added but functionality will not be removed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.netmagazine.com/news/html5-gets-splits-122102|title=HTML5 gets the splits|publisher=Net magazine |first1=Craig |last1=Grannell |date=July 23, 2012 |access-date=23 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725214739/http://www.netmagazine.com/news/html5-gets-splits-122102 |url-status=dead |archive-date=Jul 25, 2012 }}</ref>
; :In December 2012, W3C designated HTML5 as a Candidate Recommendation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/2012/CR-html5-20121217/|title=HTML5|publisher=W3C|date=2012-12-17|access-date=2013-06-15}}</ref> The criterion for advancement to [[W3C recommendation#W3C recommendation (REC)|W3C Recommendation]] is "two 100% complete and fully interoperable implementations".<ref name="W3Crec">{{cite web|url=http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#What.27s_this_I_hear_about_2022.3F|title=When Will HTML5 Be Finished?|website=FAQ|publisher=WHAT Working Group|access-date=29 November 2009}}</ref>
; 2014&nbsp;HTML5 – Proposed Recommendation and Recommendation :
; : In September 2014, W3C moved HTML5 to Proposed Recommendation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/4074|title=Call for Review: HTML5 Proposed Recommendation Published W3C News|publisher=W3C|date=2014-09-16|access-date=2014-09-27}}</ref>
; : On 28 October 2014, HTML5 was released as a stable W3C Recommendation,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/2014/10/html5-rec.html.en|title=Open Web Platform Milestone Achieved with HTML5 Recommendation|publisher=W3C|date=28 October 2014|access-date=29 October 2014}}</ref> meaning the specification process is complete.<ref name=finalars>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/html5-specification-finalized-squabbling-over-who-writes-the-specs-continues/|title=HTML5 specification finalized, squabbling over specs continues|website=Ars Technica|date=2014-10-29|access-date=2014-10-29}}</ref>

==== XHTML versions ====
{{Main|XHTML}}
XHTML is a separate language that began as a reformulation of HTML 4.01 using [[XML]] 1.0. It is now referred to as ''the XML syntax for HTML'' and is no longer being developed as a separate standard.<ref>{{cite web |title=HTML vs XML syntax |url=https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/introduction.html#html-vs-xhtml |publisher=WHATWG |access-date=22 March 2023}}</ref>
* XHTML 1.0 was published as a W3C Recommendation on January 26, 2000,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/|title=XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition)|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=January 26, 2000|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref> and was later revised and republished on August 1, 2002. It offers the same three variations as HTML 4.0 and 4.01, reformulated in XML, with minor restrictions.
* XHTML 1.1<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/|title=XHTML 1.1 – Module-based XHTML&nbsp;— Second Edition|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=February 16, 2007|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref> was published as a W3C Recommendation on May 31, 2001. It is based on XHTML 1.0 Strict, but includes minor changes, can be customized, and is reformulated using modules in the W3C recommendation "Modularization of XHTML", which was published on April 10, 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xhtml-modularization-20010410/|title=Modularization of XHTML|website=W3C|access-date=2017-01-04}}</ref>
* XHTML 2.0 was a working draft. Work on it was abandoned in 2009 in favor of work on [[HTML5]] and [[XHTML#XHTML5|XHTML5]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/|title=XHTM 2.0|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=July 26, 2006|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/News/2009#item119|title=XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML5|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=July 17, 2009|access-date=November 16, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=W3C XHTML FAQ|url=https://www.w3.org/2009/06/xhtml-faq.html}}</ref> XHTML 2.0 was incompatible with XHTML 1.x and, therefore, would be more accurately characterized as an XHTML-inspired new language than an update to XHTML 1.x.