The much hyped Hyper Text Markup Language 5 in website design is shrouded in quite a few misconceptions which have been busted in this article.

Myths

Hyper Text Markup Language 5 will ruin Flash

No it won’t. This misconception arose because of the fallout between Apple and Adobe and the rapid use of HTML5 video and audio for mobile and application development. It may be very good for the low volume playback videos but a complete Hyper Text Markup Language 5 support will need 2 or 3 times Flash support’s encoding chores and still lag behind in features presently available in plug-in dependent technologies.

HTML5 will not be available until 2022
This is a date that was mentioned in an article way back in 2008. But later it was confirmed that it is to reach W3C Recommendation level in 2014. That, however, does not mean that you won’t be able to use it before 2014. It is just that by 2014 there will be 2 browsers with full interoperable implementations of the specification. Presently it is supported by the prevalent browsers. It is not the mark up but CSS that is to be worried about. CSS3 may not be supported by old browsers unless proper details are availed.

HTML5 needs CSS3
Not true, because it is only markup and it goes fine with CSS2 styling. What is does need is complete styling for the presentational elements of your design. It removes all the attributes and tags that plays an important role in determining the look and style of any element and is not any more tolerant of inline styling. The browser now sets the rules that you need to follow while making a markup layout.

Hyper Text Markup Language 5 can make websites less accessible
It is in fact built around accessibility. While it was planned, it was made sure that each element complies with WIA ARIA landmark roles. They are properties that are added to your tags which allow accessible devices to interpret the flow of a website better. Converting a site to Hyper Text Markup Language 5 may hamper its accessibility only if these roles are not enforced correctly.

HTML5 does not work in IE
The truth is it works just fine with IE10 and 9. Even IE8 is compatible with certain features like localStorage.

Using HTML5 as an umbrella term is not good
This usually means that the term includes JavaScript, CSS3 etc. Only developers care about being specific.

Adding a new Hyper Text Markup Language 5 doctype to a website will make it HTML5
As far as the browser is concerned it will continue to be Hyper Text Markup Language 5, but it is much more than a doctype. It is a total set of semantics, layout elements and practices. This will make your website take advantage of the new features of the browser and validate as HTML5.

HTML5 will ruin XML
You can use XHTML5 if you wish to use XML instead of HTML in website design. It includes all features of Hyper Text Markup Language 5. The only thing you need to ensure is it must be in well-formed XHTML syntax.

HTML5 legalizes tag soup
It is in fact much more lenient in its syntax than XHTML. Tags can be written in lower, upper or both the cases and attributes do not need to be wrapped in quotes.