W3C

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) today published Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 and the WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide as Proposed Recommendations. WAI-ARIA is a technical specification for making dynamic, interactive Web content accessible to people with disabilities. WAI-ARIA and supporting documents are described in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Comments are welcome by 7 March 2014. More information is provided in the WAI-ARIA 1.0 is Proposed Recommendation e-mail. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Working Group Note of XML processor profiles. This specification defines several XML processor profiles, each of which defines how any given XML document should be processed, both operationally and in terms of what information must be made available to applications. It is intended as a resource for other specifications, which can by a single normative reference establish precisely what input processing they require as well as what information they require. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

The HTML Working Group has updated a Candidate Recommendation, published two Last Call Working Drafts, updated a Working Draft and a Working Group Note today:

• Updated Candidate Recommendation of HTML5. This specification defines the 5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.
• Last Call Working Draft of Polyglot Markup: A robust profile of the HTML5 vocabulary. A document that uses polyglot markup is a document that is a stream of bytes that parses into identical document trees (with some exceptions, as noted in the Introduction) when processed either as HTML or when processed as XML. Polyglot markup that meets a well-defined set of constraints is interpreted as compatible, regardless of whether it is processed as HTML or as XHTML, per the HTML5 specification. Polyglot markup uses a specific DOCTYPE, namespace declarations, and a specific case—normally lower case but occasionally camel case—for element and attribute names. Polyglot markup uses lower case for certain attribute values. Further constraints include those on void elements, named entity references, and the use of scripts and style. Comments are welcome through 25 February 2014.
• Last Call Working Draft of W3C DOM4. DOM defines a platform-neutral model for events and document nodes. Comments are welcome through 4 March 2014.
• Updated Working Draft of HTML 5.1. This specification defines the 5th major version, first minor revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features continue to be introduced to help Web application authors, new elements continue to be introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention continues to be given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.
• Working Group Note of W3C HTML Ruby Markup Extensions. The ruby markup model currently described in the HTML specification is limited in its support for a number of features, notably jukugo and double-sided ruby, as well as inline ruby. This specification addresses these issues by introducing new elements and changing the ruby processing model. Specific care has been taken to ensure that authoring remains as simple as possible.

Learn more about the HTML Activity.

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 for the purpose of updating the previous Candidate Recommendation. This module replaces two earlier drafts: CSS3 Backgrounds and CSS3 Border. CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. This draft contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to borders and backgrounds. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2, which builds on CSS level 1. The main extensions compared to level 2 are borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners and boxes with shadows. Comments are welcome through 3 March 2014. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C has published the January 2014 edition of Standards for Web Applications on Mobile, an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the capabilities of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context.

A deliverable of the HTML5Apps project, this edition of the document includes changes and additions since September 2013, including 6 documents reaching Recommendation status (a record), which shows increased maturity of the platform; 4 FPWD and 4 new editors drafts illustrate it is still growing up nicely; and a lot of the changes are linked to performance, off-line support and packaging.

Learn more about the Web and Mobile Interest Group.