[felgall]

Originally Posted by Philip M

Yes, see - http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/

But something that works only in HTML5 and then not in IE is in my view of no practical use or value. It will be a few years before HTML4 browsers are obsolete.

It is JavaScript - NOT HTML 5. So it should be available in all browsers within the next few years - there's no reason why it wouldn't work with HTML 1 provided the browser supports the file.api. You will not have to wait 20 years (or more) for HTML 5 to be finished to be able to use it. Just because HTML 5 is now being put forward as a generic term for all the new additions to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fast food, racing cars, egg plants, monkeys, and moon rockets doesn't mean that the term has any relevant meaning beyond HTML itself. It has as little meaning to JavaScript as it does to moon rockets - perhaps less.

This suddenly using a term for thousands of things that have nothing to do with what it was originally specific to is kind of like the way Web 2 suddenly got used for lots of things that have nothing to do with JavaScript/Ajax and Web 3 is sometimes used for things way beyond generic database tables.

That this isn't yet officially a part of JavaScript the way things like postMessage and "use strict"; are is why I am not rushing to add it to my "by example" site - I found it in David Flanagan's "JavaScript: the Definitive guide" now that I found out that it exists - had obviously ignored it before because it is still only part way through the draft process before becoming a standard (although much closer that HTML 5 is).