science

HTML Working Group

HTML Working Group is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand HTML Working Group rather than just read about it. In short: The HTML Working Group was an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group from 1994 to 1996, and a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working group from 1997 to 2015. The working group was co-chaired by Paul Cotton, Sam Ruby, and Maciej Stachowiak.

Key takeaways

HTML Working Group belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect HTML Working Group to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HTML Working Group from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The HTML Working Group was an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group from 1994 to 1996, and a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working group from 1997 to 2015. The working group was co-chaired by Paul Cotton, Sam Ruby, and Maciej Stachowiak.

Members Members of the HTML Working Group included representatives from the following organizations:

Adobe Systems Inc. Apple Google, Inc. HP Microsoft Mozilla Opera Software W3C had also invited several experts to collaborate with the working group including:

Robin Berjon (past editor for the HTML5 and DOM4 specifications) Marcos Cáceres Ian Devlin Steve Faulkner John Foliot Jeremy Keith Martin McEvoy Janina Sajka David Sleight Manu Sporny Oli Studholme

Internal working system The HTMLWG had members from a diverse community such as content providers, content authors, and anyone interested in the work on HTML.

Participation To participate in the group, the steps involved having a W3C account and filling out a form for copyright, content etc. policies. Steps are different for people who are affiliated with W3C Member organization and those who are not.

Communication methods Mailing lists (used to organize activities such as task-force discussions and working-group administrative purposes) HTML-WG Channel (for weekly telcons and informal discussions)

Meetings Weekly telcons (On Thursday and Tuesday) Face-to-face (twice a year, and the latest one was held in San Jose, on April 8–9, 2014) See HTML/wg/WorkMode for more details about the way a member can participate in, responsibilities of Editor, various types of meetings that members can attend, etc.

Interest Groups To encourage broad participation, three locale-based interest groups were set up: the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Interest Groups. The HTML5 Chinese Interest Group had over 1000 members.

History The creation of an HTML Working Group was first proposed at the 30th Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in Toronto, on 26 July 1994. The Group was founded with the adoption of its charter in September 1994 and was chaired by Eric Sink. The IETF HTML Working Group oversaw the creation and publication of RFC 1866 in November 1995, the document which defines HTML 2.0. The Group also published RCF 1942 in May 1996, a document which provides an experimental description of an extended set of HTML tables. The IETF Group was dissolved in September 1996.

Change in working direction In 1999, W3C released HTML 4.01 and then stopped continuing the evolution of HTML, as the W3C's HTMLWG announced it would change their direction to exploitation of XML-based version of HTML (named XHTML 2.0), which has a stricter standard. The traditional version of HTML allowed uncertainties in code review, which means even there are some mistakes in the web pages, browser will still display the contents through error detection and correction. "Nowadays, there would be at least one mistake existing in over 99% HTML web pages. " estimated by the Google senior programmer Mark Pilgrim. The W3C HTMLWG hoped to boost a more regulated development of the future of the Internet through rigorous standards. While the popularization and application of XHTML had not received many responses from the public.

Collaboration In 2004, Mozilla and Opera put forward a plan based on HTML 4, as they wanted to continue the evolution of HTML. The plan was not passed. Then they decided to form WHATWG, in order to pursue the future of HTML along with W3C’S HTMLWG but in different direction. In 2006, WHATWG made a breakthrough while XHTML 2.0 was still impractical. As a result, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of W3C announced that the W3C's HTMLWG would stop to jointly develop HTML5 with WHATWG. Ian Hickson was responsible for both editing the two groups' specifications. In October 2009, W3C dismissed the XHTML 2 group.

Split In July 2012, W3C's HTMLWG and WHATWG officially parted ways about working on HTML5. WHATWG evolved HTML5 and W3C worked on a more static "snapshot". Therefore, there are two versions of HTML5 - one is a "living standard" and the other one is "snapshots". The split between two bodies was due to conflicts. Regarding fears of this split from the public, then head of WHATWG, Ian Hickson said the split would not be as harmful as people thought. "It's certainly possible that the specs will fork, but it's unlikely, or at least, unlikely to happen in a way that is harmful." In his opinion, possible conflicts will lead to a more precise standard. And "Browser vendors will just know to use the more precise one."

Differences between WHATWG and HTMLWG WHATWG maintains a living standard and stopped using version numbers. W3C's HTMLWG leaves the WHATWG spec in order to stick producing snapshots.

See also About the HTMLWG, a brief summary of HTMLWG.

References

External links Official site Participants in the HTML Working Group A full list of HTML working group related mailing groups Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Public Invited Experts in the W3C HTML Working Group

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HTML Working Group

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HTML Working Group claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to HTML Working Group before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about HTML Working Group ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of HTML Working Group

In research: HTML Working Group appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses HTML Working Group in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: HTML Working Group is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics HTML, Working groups, World Wide Web Consortium, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HTML Working Group outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study HTML Working Group in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HTML Working Group means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain HTML Working Group out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HTML Working Group in simple terms?

Why does HTML Working Group matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study HTML Working Group?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on HTML Working Group.