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In a recent interview, Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson told SD Times that more progress could be made with teams working in parallel, and he recommended that portions of the HTML 5 specification be broken off and assigned to new workgroups.

That might not be as radical as it sounds, according to Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond, who believes that it makes sense to subdivide HTML 5 into smaller, more manageable pieces. “I can’t even imagine how many years it will take browsers to implement it [HTML 5].” Hammond posited, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Wilson explained that several pieces of HTML 5 would be equally useful outside of it, particularly for Web applications and content. Those bits include such features as the Canvas APIs, which are used to render moving graphics; offline caching of Web applications' resources; persistent client-side data storage; and the peer-to-peer (P2P) networking connection framework.

Hammond noted that examples of those technologies are already prospering outside of HTML, such as local storage in Google Gears, and to him, the popularity of technologies like Flash and Silverlight demonstrates that there is a demand for the Canvas APIs. “These two in particular make a lot of sense to me … to split off from the larger specification and move [HTML 5] forward more rapidly,” Hammond said.

Larry O’Brien, an independent analyst and consultant who writes the Windows & .NET Watch column for SD Times, demurred, stating in an e-mail: “Canvas APIs define a resolution-dependent bitmap area. While somewhat of a half-step in HTML 5 (in that they are limited to 2D), it seems to me that this is an area where greater integration with text-markup is probably called for.”

Microsoft’s Wilson noted that development of the P2P framework would likely advance at a slower pace that it could due to technical considerations, adding that working with the Canvas APIs would require specialized experts.

The work on the next-generation Web protocol is ambitious indeed. New attribute and element tags will embed audio and video content, and will simplify indexing by search engines, rendering on small-screen devices and using voice readers for the visually impaired. Some deprecated elements—center, front and strike—were dropped in favor of CSS, because it provides the same functionality.

HTML 5 has additional APIs for audio, graphics and video, and interactive document editing.

In an attempt at flexibility, HTML 5 can be written using either an HTML or XML syntax, and the specification has precise rules for handling and recovering from syntax errors. HTML 4 browsers can ignore HTML 5 constructs, and existing HTML content remains usable.

Hammond questioned why browser vendors should wait for full compliance before they allow people to take advantage of HTML 5’s features. Web browsers including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Opera 9.5 and Safari 3.1 have already begun to implement aspects of its language elements and offline storage capability.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) spokesperson Michael Smith acknowledged that HTML’s new functionality makes the specification large, and that a general agreement among most working group members exists that some parts of it would be better off as sub-specifications.