W3C's HTLM5 Reaches 'Last Call' Status, Inviting Discussions

The HTML5 standard, at least as envisioned by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is moving forward towards completion. The group has issued a notification saying that the HTML5 draft has reached "last call" status, meaning it's ready, as far as the people working on it are concerned. Now, everyone else involved and the community at large can voice their concerns and discuss possible changes.

"We're seeing interest in HTML5 everywhere, and I am very excited that HTML5 has reached Last Call," W3C's Philippe Le Hégaret, said.

"The HTML Working Group is W3C's largest group with over 50 W3C Members and more than 200 invited experts. Reaching agreements in this large a community is a tremendous achievement," he added.

"By issuing a Last Call announcement, the HTML Working Group encourages people to comment on the extent to which they believe that technical requirements have been met and significant dependencies with groups inside and outside W3C have been satisfied," W3C said.

Any group that is dissatisfied with any aspect of the standard in its current form, can speak up until August 3rd. If everything goes smoothly, HTML5 will become an official standard by 2014, some 15 years after the previous version, HTML 4.0.

The whole process is laborious, but the group insists that it's necessary to make sure that standard web technologies are developed in a way that serves all interests.

But it may all be moot, nobody can force web developers or browser makers adhere to the standard or to wait around until it's officially ratified.

The W3C went through this before. After HTML 4 came out, the group abandoned HTML altogether and worked on XHTML for several years.

But the technology got no support from browser makers and web developers who instead started working on the next version of HTML, what would become HTML5, under the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group (WHATWG) umbrella.

The W3C eventually relented and took HTML5 under its wing, but even now there are tensions. While the group continues to work towards completing the standard, WHATWG announced that it's dropping version numbers altogether and that HTML has become a living standard that is continually updated and enhanced.