HTML 4 vs HTML 5

As the Internet has evolved, so does its language. Currently, HTML is in its fourth version with HTML 5 already in the works and being finalized. The main goal of HTML 5 is to create a more standardized language that incorporates the many new types of content prevalent today. The most noticeable change in HTML 5 is its ability to incorporate video and audio without the need for third-party plug-ins. In HTML 4, there are quite a few plug-ins in use with Adobe Flash being the most popular. Flash is also used for on-the-fly drawing on the page, usually for rendering interactive content or for games. This is now handled by the canvass element in HTML 5.

To improve the capability of HTML 5 in rendering a wide variety of content, support for SVG and MathML were added. SVG is a specification for drawing static or dynamic vector graphics. Because SVG is written in XML, it has many advantages like; scripting, indexing, and better compression. MathML is also a specification in XML that is involved in the correct representation of mathematical formulas. Math formulas have been problematic since the beginning of the Internet, and HTML and many web developers resorted to displaying equations via images. The disadvantages of using images include increased labor in modifying and the inability to be searched or indexed.

In order to improve the structure of HTML pages, many elements have been added, changed, or removed. New elements include: section, article, aside, h-group, header, footer, nav, figure, and many more. Changed elements are elements that are already present in HTML 4, but the way they work has been tweaked. The list of changed elements includes: a, b, address, cite, hr, I, label, menu, strong, large, and many more. Lastly, removed elements are elements that are no longer included in HTML 5, among them are: basefont, big, center, font, strike, tt, u, frame, frameset, noframes, acronym, applet, isindex, dir, noscript. The reasons for dropping these elements range from disuse, obsolescence due to CSS, and usability issues. The removed elements can still be used as browsers would still be able to parse them, but using them on a page would cause it to fail HTML 5 validation.

Summary:

1.HTML 5 can natively incorporate content that needed plug-ins in HTML 4.
2.HTML 5 can use SVG and MathML inline while HTML 4 cannot.
3.HTML 5 allows the storage and use of offline applications while HTML 4 does not.
4.HTML 5 has many new elements that are not present in HTML 4.
5.Certain elements have changed in HTML 5 compared to how they were in HTML 4.
6.HTML 5 has dropped certain elements from HTML 4.

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