WHATWG

The WHATWG was formed in response to the slow development of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web standards and W3C's decision to abandon HTML in favor of XML-based technologies.{{cite web|title=HTML5: A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/|website=W3C Recommendations|publisher=W3C|access-date=21 October 2015|ref=history-0|archive-url=https://www.w3.org/TR/2014/REC-html5-20141028/introduction.html#history-0|archive-date=28 October 2014|quote="Shortly thereafter, Apple, Mozilla, and Opera jointly announced their intent to continue working on the effort under the umbrella of a new venue called the WHATWG."}} The WHATWG mailing list was announced on 4 June 2004,{{cite web|url=https://whatwg.org/news/start|title=WHAT open mailing list announcement|last=Hickson|first=Ian|date=4 June 2004|publisher=WHATWG|access-date=24 February 2010}} two days after the initiatives of a joint Opera–Mozilla position paperJoint Opera–Mozilla position paper voted down prior to the founding of the WHATWG: [https://www.w3.org/2004/04/webapps-cdf-ws/papers/opera.html Position Paper for the W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents] had been voted down by the W3C members at the W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents.{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/2004/04/webapps-cdf-ws/minutes-20040602.html |title=W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents (Day 2) Jun 2, 2004|date=2 June 2004|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=24 February 2010}}

On 10 April 2007, the Mozilla Foundation, Apple, and Opera Software proposed{{cite web|url=https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/0429.html|title=Proposal to Adopt HTML5|last=Stachowiak|first=Maciej|date=9 April 2007|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=24 February 2010}} that the new HTML working group of the W3C adopt the WHATWG's HTML5 as the starting point of its work and name its future deliverable as "HTML5" (though the WHATWG specification was later renamed HTML Living Standard).{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

On 9 May 2007, the new HTML working group of the W3C resolved to do that.{{cite web|url=https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007May/0909.html|title=results of HTML 5 text, editor, name questions|last=Connolly|first=Dan|date=9 May 2007|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=24 February 2010}} An Internet Explorer platform architect from Microsoft was invited but did not join, citing the lack of a patent policy to ensure all specifications can be implemented on a royalty-free basis.{{cite web|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/cwilso/2007/01/10/you-me-and-the-w3c-aka-reinventing-html/|title=You, me and the W3C (aka Reinventing HTML)|first=Chris|last=Wilson|work=Albatross! The personal blog of Chris Wilson, Platform Architect of the Internet Explorer Platform team at Microsoft|date=10 January 2007|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=30 January 2009}} Since then, the W3C and the WHATWG had been developing HTML independently, at times causing specifications to diverge.{{cite web |last1=Cimpanu |first1=Catalin |title=Browser vendors win war with W3C over HTML and DOM standards |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/browser-vendors-win-war-with-w3c-over-html-and-dom-standards/ |website=ZDNet |date=28 May 2019}}

In 2017, the WHATWG established an intellectual property rights agreement that includes a patent policy.{{cite web |last1=Van Kesteren |first1=Anne |title=Further working mode changes |url=https://blog.whatwg.org/working-mode-changes |website=The WHATWG Blog |publisher=WHATWG |date=11 December 2017}} This spurred a renewed attempt to allow the W3C and the WHATWG to work together on specifications. In 2019, the W3C and WHATWG agreed to a memorandum of understanding where development of HTML and DOM specifications would be done principally in the WHATWG.

The editor has significant control over the specification, but the community can influence the decisions of the editor.{{Cite web|url=https://code.tutsplus.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-html5--net-23064|title=A Brief History of HTML5|last=Way|first=Jeffrey|access-date=2016-10-04}} In one case, editor Ian Hickson proposed replacing the {{tag|time|o}} tag with a more generic {{tag|data|o}} tag, but the community disagreed and the change was reverted.

Initially, the name Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force was also used,{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828204157/http://whattf.org/ |url=http://whattf.org/ |archive-date=2018-08-28 |url-status=dead |title=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force}}{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904063826/http://www.whattf.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/ |title=HTML 5 Draft Recommendation — 7 July 2008 |date=2008-07-07 |publisher=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force |archive-date=2018-09-04 |url=http://www.whattf.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/ |url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://whattf.org/news/start|title=WHAT open mailing list announcement|last=Hickson|first=Ian|date=4 June 2004|publisher=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050110163822/http://www.whattf.org/news/start|url-status=dead|archive-date=2005-01-10}}{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704214328/http://whattf.org/charter |title=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force Charter |publisher=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force |website=WHATTF.org |archive-date=2007-07-04 |url=http://whattf.org/charter |url-status=dead}} Compare [https://web.archive.org/web/20070707022719/http://www.whatwg.org/charter identical group charter with identical membership list on WHATWG.org, archived {{#formatdate:2007-07-07}}]. along with variant abbreviations including WHAT Working Group,{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010184701/http://www.whatwg.org/mailing-list |title=Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group Mailing List |archive-date=2006-10-10 |url=http://www.whatwg.org/mailing-list |url-status=unfit}} WHAT Task Force and WHATTF.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704214432/http://whattf.org/mailing-list |title=Web Hypertext Application Technology Task Force Mailing List |archive-date=2007-07-04 |url=http://whattf.org/mailing-list}} After some time using both the {{code|whattf.org}} and {{code|whatwg.org}} domain names, the name WHATWG was eventually standardized on. The namespace URI {{code|http://whattf.org/datatype-draft}} remains in use for the HTML validator's data type library.{{cite web |url=https://github.com/validator/validator/blob/c268d71ab68cf24ca6557b32e850089a480c59db/schema/html5/form-datatypes.rnc#L1 |title=form-datatypes.rnc |work=The Nu Html Checker (v.Nu)}}

{{See also|HTML5#W3C and WHATWG conflict}}

On 28 May 2019, the W3C announced that WHATWG would be the sole publisher of the HTML and DOM standards.{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/blog/2019/05/w3c-and-whatwg-to-work-together-to-advance-the-open-web-platform/|title=W3C and WHATWG to Work Together to Advance the Open Web Platform|last1=Jaffe|first1=Jeff|date=28 May 2019|website=W3C Blog|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529021122/https://www.w3.org/blog/2019/05/w3c-and-whatwg-to-work-together-to-advance-the-open-web-platform/|archive-date=29 May 2019|url-status=live|access-date=29 May 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/html/|title=W3C and the WHATWG Signed an Agreement to Collaborate on a Single Version of HTML and DOM|date=28 May 2019|website=W3C|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529012655/https://www.w3.org/html/|archive-date=29 May 2019|url-status=live|access-date=29 May 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/2019/04/WHATWG-W3C-MOU.html|title=Memorandum of Understanding Between W3C and WHATWG|date=28 May 2019|website=W3C|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529012854/https://www.w3.org/2019/04/WHATWG-W3C-MOU.html|archive-date=29 May 2019|url-status=live|access-date=29 May 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Cimpanu |first1=Catalin |title=Browser vendors Win War with W3C over HTML and DOM standards |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/browser-vendors-win-war-with-w3c-over-html-and-dom-standards/ |access-date=29 May 2019 |work=ZDNet |date=29 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529021959/https://www.zdnet.com/article/browser-vendors-win-war-with-w3c-over-html-and-dom-standards/ |archive-date=29 May 2019}} The W3C and WHATWG had been publishing competing standards since 2012. While the W3C standard was identical to the WHATWG in 2007 the standards have since progressively diverged due to different design decisions.{{cite web |title=W3C - WHATWG Wiki |url=https://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/W3C |website=WHATWG Wiki |access-date=29 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529013834/https://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/W3C |archive-date=29 May 2019}} The WHATWG "Living Standard" had been the de facto web standard for some time.{{cite web

|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/an-epitaph-for-the-web-standard-xhtml-2/

|title=An epitaph for the Web standard, XHTML 2

|first=Stephen |last=Shankland

|work=CNET

|date=9 July 2009

|publisher=CBS INTERACTIVE INC

}}

The WHATWG publishes a number of standards that form a substantial portion of the web platform including:

• The HTML Living Standard (sometimes informally called HTML5{{cite web|url=https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/introduction.html#is-this-html5?|title=Is this HTML5?|date=13 June 2019|publisher=WHATWG|access-date=13 June 2019}}). The HTML specification has been a living document without version numbers since 2011.{{cite web|url=https://blog.whatwg.org/html-is-the-new-html5|title=HTML is the new HTML5|last=Hickson|first=Ian|date=19 January 2011|publisher=WHATWG|access-date=21 January 2011}} It includes both HTML, the core markup language for the web, and a number of related APIs.
• The DOM Standard, defines how the Document Object Model on the web is supposed to work and replaces W3C DOM level 3. For example, it replaces mutation events with mutation observers.
• Fetch Standard,{{cite web|url=https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/|title=Fetch Standard|publisher=WHATWG|date=3 May 2019|access-date=13 June 2019}} which "defines requests, responses, and the process that binds them: fetching." The fetch standard defines the 'fetch' JavaScript API, and supersedes the HTML5 fetch functionality, CORS and the HTTP Origin header semantics.
• The Streams Standard provides APIs for creating, composing, and consuming streams of data. These streams are designed to map efficiently to low-level I/O primitives, and allow easy composition with built-in backpressure and queueing. On top of streams, the web platform can build higher-level abstractions, such as filesystem or socket APIs, while at the same time users can use the supplied tools to build their own streams which integrate well with those of the web platform.
• The Encoding Standard defines how character encodings such as Windows-1252 and UTF-8 are handled in web browsers and is intended to replace the IETF encodings registry.
• The MIME type sniffing standard defines how MIME types are supposed to be sniffed in web browsers.
• The URL standard defines how URLs are supposed to be parsed in web browsers.{{ cite web | url = https://www.npmjs.com/package/whatwg-url | title = whatwg-url | access-date = 25 July 2019 | date = 18 August 2018 | website = npm (software) | quote = whatwg-url is a full implementation of the WHATWG URL Standard. It can be used standalone, but it also exposes a lot of the internal algorithms that are useful for integrating a URL parser into a project like jsdom. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190725153051/https://www.npmjs.com/package/whatwg-url | archive-date = 25 July 2019}}
• Web IDL used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers.{{Cite web |title=Web IDL Standard |url=https://webidl.spec.whatwg.org/#introduction |access-date=2023-09-03 |website=webidl.spec.whatwg.org}}

• Ecma International
• Document Object Model
• HyperText Markup Language

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• {{official website}}

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Category:HTML5

Category:Internet Standard organizations

Category:Organizations established in 2004

Category:Standards organizations in the United States

Category:Web applications

Category:Working groups

Category:World Wide Web