Difference between the "Proposed Recommendation" and the "Candidate Recommendation"

Question

A recent article on HTML5 says, the Proposed Recommendation date is 2022 and the Candidate Recommendation date is 2012.

I would like to know what is the difference between the "Proposed Recommendation" and the "Candidate Recommendation"?

Answer 1

From the W3C process documentation on http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/tr.html#q74

A Recommendation progresses through five maturity levels:

1.Working Draft (WD)
2.Last Call Working Draft
3.Candidate Recommendation (CR)
4.Proposed Recommendation (PR)
5.W3C Recommendation (REC)

Candidate Recommendation (CR)

A Candidate Recommendation is a document that W3C believes has been widely reviewed and satisfies the Working Group's technical requirements. W3C publishes a Candidate Recommendation to gather implementation experience.

Proposed Recommendation (PR)

A Proposed Recommendation is a mature technical report that, after wide review for technical soundness and implementability, W3C has sent to the W3C Advisory Committee for final endorsement

Answer 2

So, CR is "Start implementing." (well, of course, significant parts of HTML5 are already being implemented right now, but at CR, no big changes will be introduced), while PR means "We're done, there are two independent and correct implementations of every feature; please put a W3C stamp of approval on it."