HTML5 APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT MANUAL (2016)

2 - Understand the platform fundamentals

Although HTML5 is HTML, it has been developed by the W3C to work directly with CSS3 and JavaScript to allow developers and designers the ability to create web applications that will also work on touch-enabled devices and easily adapt to smaller screens. In addition, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript are all considered platform-independent technologies and therefore can run regardless of the operating system if the operating system has a web browser.

For example, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 have the Internet Explorer browser, Mac OS and iPhone have the Safari browser, Linux OS has the Firefox browser and Android phones have the Google Chrome browser. Each of these browsers can run HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. However, browsers also have versions, so if the browser being used is the newest version then most HTML5 and CSS3 features will be supported.

An important part of app development in the Windows environment is the Metro style user interface (UI), which is the UI used by the latest Microsoft Windows version: Windows 8. The Metro style UI includes features like a clean, uncluttered look and feel, use of the full screen, large hubs (graphical buttons), and a focus on lateral scrolling, to name a few.

The HTML5 family includes many new markup tags and technologies like media queries, geolocation, Modernizr, and much more. These technologies add a lot of functionality to HTML-based apps and help make the finished product more stylish.