Joe Lennon

Since the World Wide Web emerged in the early 1990s, HTML has evolved to become a relatively powerful markup language, which, when backed up by its close partners JavaScript and CSS, can be used to create visually stunning and interactive Web sites and applications. This tutorial serves as a hands-on introduction to HTML5 and CSS3. It provides information about the functionality and syntax for many of the new elements and APIs that HTML5 has to offer, as well as the new selectors, effects, and features that CSS3 brings to the table. Finally, it will show you how to develop a sample Web page that harnesses many of these new features. By the time you have finished this tutorial, you will be ready to build Web sites or applications of your own that are powered by HTML5 and CSS3.

Over the past ten years or so, concepts such as Web 2.0, Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), and the Semantic Web have all pushed HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to and beyond their limits, often relying on plug-ins such as Adobe® Flash to power components such as video and audio, as well as highly graphical and interactive applications. The Adobe Flex development framework, Microsoft®’s Silverlight platform, and JavaFX have all looked to provide support where HTML’s weaknesses made developers’ lives difficult. With HTML5, however, the markup language is striking back, with full multimedia support, local storage and offline application support, a native 2D drawing API, and a host of new application development APIs, all provided with the intent of proving that HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can provide a rich front end to your Web sites and applications.

Read the tutorial at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/tutorials/wa-html5/