HTML5 and CSS3 were big. So big that they were buzzwords that actually meant something and were a massive success story in pushing web technology forward. JavaScript names their big releases now too: ES6, ES7, ES8… and it seems like it will keep going that way.
But HTML and CSS are done with that game. Shortly after the whole HTML5/CSS3 thing, the message was that there will be no HTML6/CSS4. There are reasons for that, like perhaps it’s healthier for CSS modules to evolve independently of some global versioning number.
That said… as Dave says:
… the lull in excitement since those days is palpable….
People aren’t equally excited about the big three languages of the web.
I’m on a bit of a quest to understand why these three technologies built to work together are so unequally yoked in popularity and their communities polarized from one another. One end of the spectrum experiences a boom while the other experiences a bust. The rising tide does not lift all boats.
Surely a major version number release for HTML and CSS could spark a ton of fresh enthusiasm.
I’ll help. HTML6 could have HTML imports for web components, <include>, and a multi-select. CSS4 gets container queries, subgrid, standardized form control styling, and transitions to auto dimensions.
The best they could do is to deliver those technologies at all. I don’t care about numbers, I need for things that I implement to work.
If placing a big number on stack helps with it then so be it. Otherwise it should be something important.
I think it’s better that html and css (maybe even js) to not be versioned. Features would be added and improved upon independently when the need arises. Every browser should then update accordingly.
Why not go all the way to ten, like the iPhone did a few years ago? That way we can have HTMLX, which of course won’t be confusing and I must also point out is of course a joke in case the W3 take me seriously and do it – stop, it was only a joke, just like when we said why not reformulate HTML in XML. Not serious. Don’t do HTMLX. Just a joke.
HTML6 will bring lazyload too