Question

I have a program that creates an html5 page. It actually creates a flash object and an html5 page that gets rendered if flash is not available, so that it can run on ipad.

How can I see the html5 page? Do I need to install any plugin to my browser? Shouldn’t ie8 and chrome play it by default?

You can see the html5 page here: http://gardengnomesoftware.com/samples/pano2vr_3/mozart/

Answer 1

HTML5 is an emerging standard. What that means is that there is a standards body that is developing it, and that things are just being built, today, without necessarily consulting or listening to the standards body. HTML5 consists of dozens of new technologies, some of which are supported by some browsers, others which are not.

The result of this is that the major browsers support different bits and pieces of the standard, and support different solutions in different ways. It’s kind of a morass, actually, but people are still working with it because the various technologies are slowly converging across browsers, and because it allows you to do new and awesome things.

For example, czech out this page, which will show you what the browser you are currently using supports: http://html5test.com/.

That’ll give you a feel for how many new technologies are being included in HTML5. Generally, the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari are pretty good. IE is getting to be OK in its latest version (v9), but IE will be your enemy because the upgrade speeds for IE are tied to the Windows OS, which means people keep using older versions.

So, to get back to your question, you need to know:

1. What technologies are being generated by the program you’re using. What is the program, anyway? We should tag this post!
2. What browsers your users are using, and how much you care about leaving old versions behind.
3. Whether your program is using anything as a fallback when HTML5 technologies fail.

Failing all that, your only other option is to test like a maniac. In every version of every browser you care about.