I'm just now learning about HTML5; at first I shrugged it off as an inevitable evolutionary fusion of HTML 4 and XHTML 1.1. Yet it's not just a markup language; it's more an extended hybrid language that embraces and supports several application programming interfaces (APIs) for web applications. It's an open format that would allow development of cross-platform web or mobile applications.
For me personally, the most interesting inclusion is XMLHttpRequest support. Specifically, XMLHttpRequest Level 2.
As the HTML5 Rocks blog points out, it's being included to allow AJAX to work with HTML5 APIs such as File System API, Web Audio API, and these would support binary file transfer and streaming media. It's all spelled out in this excellent post: New Tricks in XMLHttpRequest2.
What's surprising to me is the lack of mention of the implication for RESTful web services. It seems that XMLHttpRequest support would be a major step forward in streamlining interoperability with web services, because--in theory--you'd be able to make RESTful requests directly from a web page. How would this implementation look in actual use? I'm thinking AJAX-like web page elements that can be updated by web services in real time.
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