When Should I Go For HTML5 & CSS3?

There is a lot of buzz about HTML5 and CSS3. How do I know that it's time to get started with them a开发者_开发问答nd use them straight away in my projects or how far are we from using them?

Update: I don't want to apply the rules of:

Graceful Degradation

Progressive Enhancement

I know if this is the case, then we can use them today.

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When can I use...

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Go for HTML 5 now, but make sure your site degrades gracefully if the users browser don't support the latest technology. It's the primary solution for CSS3.

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Looking back at how long it took for most common browsers to support HTML4 and CSS1, I would predict that widespread HTML5 and CSS3 support will be available around year 2025.

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Another one, the famous list of Peter-Paul Koch:

http://www.quirksmode.org/compatibility.html

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I am working in an environment where 90% uses IE7 and IE8, so I am reluctant to use HTML5 and CSS3 and then have to provide graceful degradation. It's like double the work, but same pay, and it violates the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle.

I guess it depends on whether you have fun tweaking css and javascript and have some spare time. If you do, then use HTML5 and CSS3 and provide graceful degradation. Otherwise..

I know this will slow down the adoption of HTML5 and CSS3, but when money and management talk, what can we do?

^_^

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i think it also depends on what kind of application/website you are making and its target audience. if the target audience are expected to have a browser supporting the technologies you are intending to use, you are free to use them. otherwise, like ricebowl said "Progressive enhancement, graceful degradation" tho personally i don't really like having to clutter my code with "hacks" or fixes

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It all depends on your target audience. If you are doing something like a tech blog where the audience most likely has a modern, updated browser, by all means go HTML5 CSS3 crazy. But if you are doing something for any sort of business or a website for a little less experienced audience I would stick with

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HTML5 and CSS3 are modular projects. They're supposed to be adopted part by part. You should talk about specific features or modules within the scope of these projects and ask if you can use them today.

There are things in HTML5 that are compatible with all older browsers, like the new doctype.

Then there are things that can be "faked" from javascript, like native json decoding, or local storage (with flash fallback).

It will take many years before you will be able to use the entire specs, but you don't have to wait for that.

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Start using it now and push your web visitors to update their browser. Microsoft is as usual the last one to implement this stuff and hey now we can have fancy fonts loaded from our webserver.