We should get rid of the html5 config option, remove all the branching around it in the templates and unconditionally use the semantic container elements. The advantages are twofold: users will get the semantic containers by default and working with ikiwiki's templates will be greatly simplified.

In 490a1eca (2014), we moved to always generating HTML (5) (cf) and the html5 config option was re-purposed to control whether the template used newer HTML elements such as section, footer, etc. The option remained default to off, because ten years ago, a significant fraction of web users were using MSIE versions (≤ 8) that didn't support them.

As of 2024, caniuse report IE8 usage at 0.02%. There are no statistically signifiant browsers in use that do not support the elements we gate behind the html5 config option. (cf)

We should take the following steps

1. default html5 config option to true. This would not affect existing installations which have a fully-populated configuration file, which will contain either the user's preference or the previous default of 0. The exception is if the user has deleted the html5 key from the config file which is unlikely.

2. Print a warning that the html5 configuration option is deprecated if it is set to 0, explaining that it will be removed in a future release. (Possibly pointing at this page).

3. Remove the template branching <TMPL_IF HTML5>, replacing it with the true branch

4. Remove the config option.

I think steps 1 and 2 could take place in the same release. Steps 1/2 and 3/4 should take place in different releases. Steps 3 and 4 should happen in the same release.

— Jon, 2024-04-01

I'd love to see this happen. Theming ikiwiki is Hard, partly because Perl's templating is rather unusual compared to more modern alternatives (e.g. PHP, ERB, Jinja), but also because there's a lot of legacy lying around... -- anarcat

Fab, thanks for the ACK. I've pushed (1). I've written (2) (linked to this page via the gitbranch template) but I'm not sure whether to put out a minor release before committing that, and see what response we get first (if any). — Jon, 2024-04-02