W3C says HTML5 is buggy and unstable

DESPITE MANY IT firms telling us otherwise, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is warning that HMTL5 is not ready for prime time.

Who to believe? On the one hand we have Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, and every trendy web designer you can find when you turn over a rock, and on the other side you have the venerable W3C. Oh, and Adobe, presumably.

HTML5 has been around for about half a decade now, but it only really hit the public Internet consciousness after Steve Jobs threw Adobe's Flash on the floor and ground it under his heel when he launched the Ipad. Since then anyone who wanted to have a website that swished and wobbled, or wanted to launch a tablet, browser, or smartphone with richer web gittery has bunged it into the mix.

But this might be a case of too much too soon if Philippe Le Hégaret of the W3C is to be believed, and, let's face it, he probably is.

Fresh off from the back of an Infoworld interview in which he took the opportunity to voice his concerns about HTML5 as is, Le Hégaret took to Twitter, taking on all comers who suggested that HTML5 is okay.

Twitter is supposed to be a quick, micro-blogging medium, which might explain the first message on the topic. "There are interop issues with HTMl5 and recommend to use hacks isn't the right approach (sic)," he said. Garbled the post might be, but the sentiment is clear.

The follow-on post was more precise, and it came just two hours later, responding to another comment. He suggested that the software should only be used experimentally, and with some expected problems.

"Sure," he said, "it's fine to experiment with HTML5 and existing implementations, but don't expect stability." µ