RE: XML & XHTML

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

Actually, I wouldn't bet on XHTML going away soon, nor would I describe it
as a transition to XML.

XHTML is so little different from HTML 4.0 that there's virtually *no*
effort involved in learning it, if you know much HTML. Heck, the biggest
adjustment I've needed to make was to get in the habit of putting my tags
in lower case instead of upper (which was simply a stylistic foible on my
part, not an insistance on the part of HTML). Most of the rest of the
requirements I was already doing, even though things like closing paragraph
tags wasn't required until XHTML came on the scene. I just considered it
good coding practice (comes from the discipline acquired during my
programming training).

Given the progress toward adoption of standards so far in evidence,
whenever the majority of browsers in use handle XML, Explorer will still be
sure to handle it differently. ;{>}

And XHTML *is* valid XML. It's not a transition, it's a complete set of
tags used for web markup which adheres to well-formed XML strictures.
Coincidentally, the tags are nearly identical to those currently in use for
web markup; a surprising number of websites therefore can be viewed with
non-XML browsers with little or no loss of quality and clarity. There's no
way of distinguishing between XML and XHTML except arbitrarily. As some
businesses move toward a standard set of XML tags, I would expect XHTML to
be the standard set of web browser tags.

(Actually, that's partly why I find the use of XML as a specific noun so
amusing. XML is as specific as SGML, which means that nearly any tag can
mean anything you wish it to mean, and that you can invent hundreds of
application specific tags whenever the spirit so moves you; it only
requires that you supply the meaning with the tag, via a DTD reference. The
XHTML/CSS combination today is the XML/XSLT combination of tomorrow (only
the names will change, to convince us all that something new and wonderful
has now arrived) and there's nothing that I've seen so far that makes me
believe that XHTML will ever break, as the DTD will remain available and
will be understood as long as XML is around. Since that's the case, there's
no reason anyone working the web today shouldn't be learning and writing
XHTML. You won't be required to unlearn anything as you go forward, and
you'll be that much more ready for the future when it comes, with a very
minimum of effort. If you move towards coding in XHTML today, it simply
means less work for you later.)

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.


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