The Current State of HTML5 Forms

HTML5 is the newest specification for HTML, the language that web browsers read to display web pages. HTML5 has many new features intended to make creating websites easier and people's experience in using those websites better. Among those features are many enhancements to web forms.

Since HTML5 is fairly new and not all the details have been worked out yet, not all web browsers support HTML5 features the same way. This page is intended to explore those new new features and help you understand which browsers are supporting which features and to what degree. As a whole, this represents the current state of HTML5 forms.

Stop solving problems you don’t yet have

We’re in a really exciting time for front-end web development. Our modern browsers are excellent in terms of their standard support for CSS, and new features are becoming usable far more rapidly than I can ever remember.

This situation is exactly what we asked for in the early days of the Web Standards movement. That browsers support standard features according to the spec, so that developers could build their site using a single browser and be confident that it would then work in the other browsers. Vendor prefixes aside (and I personally believe they are a sane solution to the problem of implementing early stage CSS) that is where we are now. I do most development in Firefox on my Linux desktop and it just works in the other modern browsers and platforms that I test in. Even something that might be considered complex – such as a large-scale responsive design – works pretty consistently across not only desktop browsers but mobile ones too.

However, despite us entering a seemingly golden age of browser consistency, what I am seeing is an increasing reliance on a whole slew of polyfills, CSS frameworks and boilerplate starting points. I am concerned that these things are being promoted as something everyone should include from the outset, rather than being a toolkit you draw on to deal with problems once they have arisen.

via rachelandrew.co.uk

PatternSketch - HTML5/JavaScript Drum Machine and Sequencer


Patternsketch

Patternsketch is an HTML5 and Javascript audio sequencer and drum machine. With it, you can create audio patterns, play them back, adjust playback tempo, volume, and change the audio kit. You can also save, export, and collaborate with your friends.

Patternsketch is an excercise in imagining what browser based music tools could be, and an exploration in the possibilities of new web technologies. It was built with Javascript (no frameworks) and HTML5 (no flash).

The goal of this project was to create a tool that musicians and casual music fans could use to create music patterns and collaborate on rhythmic ideas with friends. We recognize the performance is currently unacceptable for serious use, but look forward to updates in browser technology to make tools like this a viable option for music lovers.

Patternsketch works best in Firefox and Chrome. For a technical look at the inner-workings, see our posts on how we made it.

Questions? Comments? Email us: patternsketch [at] gmail [dot] com

via patternsketch.com