HTML
From Telkoth.net
I know I'm late to the party, but I've only just recently been reading up on the debate that's taken place (is taking place?) over HTML5... "what's with all these funny new block elements? (header, footer, nav...) we need to be able to just extend HTML!"
And it occurred to me: isn't HTML extensible? Isn't HTML5 extending HTML by adding new features - features that people (and bots/spiders) want and need?
I understand that it's frustrating to wait on someone else to make up the language you use, rather than allowing you to make it yourself (the French also have this problem >_>) But unlike spoken language, a computer language requires standardization, so that both computers and humans can understand it, and make the most of it. If every web page uses <header> and <nav>, every mobile device and screen-reader can provide options to quickly skip those elements, for example. And yes, you can JavaScript your own number-only text input (yeah, I just used JavaScript as a verb - what of it?), but have you seen how clever smart phones are with type="number"? (If you haven't, they provide a touch-keyboard layout with only the numbers - slick!)
Until computers are as smart as we are (see also: the singularity, if you buy in to that kind of thing), computer languages need to be standardized; extending the language incrementally, and giving developers (of web sites, and web browsers) enough time to make full use of the extensions, is the best solution.
