XHTML 1+
I was really excited when the XHTML 2.0 specification came out!
What is exciting about XHTML (to me) is that the code for an XHTML web page is almost all meaning. In HTML, particularly before we got to version 4, there was a lot of layout in there. All kinds of elements like tables, paragraphs, headings, the whole lot, they were all being badly abused in attempts to force web pages to look a certain way. A terribly confusing situation for browsers and everyone as we tried to make sense of this cobwebby mess. Just think, a table (like a table of results for something) should be used when you want to show a table! Rather than to fit objects on the page, exactly where the designer wants them - and exactly where they aren't going to end up once different browsers have tried to make sense of them. It was an attempt to make the visual element completely controlled, and the result was the opposite - a visual element that was never controlled, because it would always behave differently in different situations.
Now we can control the look of a web page externally. But this is real control, because we know that there is no control. We know that browsers are different. We know that people's settings are different. We know not to try to control down to the millimetre. Real control has flexibility in it.
More importantly, the content of the web page is now the content. Elements are used to signify what they were designed to signify, not just used because of the way we think they will look. It's getting dangerously close to real communication! And communication is the wonderful thing about the Internet.
Plenty of people complain about, well, everything really, but specifically in this context they complain about the new specifications. Yes, I guess they complain each time there is a new specification. There are grumblings about the W3C. But I have never found any substance in the complaints. I see the developments they are making as completely positive in all ways.
I feel a good feeling when I write in XHTML. I was starting to feel good with HTML 4.01. But I feel bad when I can write loose code without consequences. Imagine all those unclosed elements (even the empty elements)! Imagine the improper nesting! Ugh. So just be thankful that everything will make a lot more sense in the future, and get started making well-formed documents!!! Oh, and please don't complain about the new specifications. I have already heard it. All comments welcome about how good XHTML is looking!
What is exciting about XHTML (to me) is that the code for an XHTML web page is almost all meaning. In HTML, particularly before we got to version 4, there was a lot of layout in there. All kinds of elements like tables, paragraphs, headings, the whole lot, they were all being badly abused in attempts to force web pages to look a certain way. A terribly confusing situation for browsers and everyone as we tried to make sense of this cobwebby mess. Just think, a table (like a table of results for something) should be used when you want to show a table! Rather than to fit objects on the page, exactly where the designer wants them - and exactly where they aren't going to end up once different browsers have tried to make sense of them. It was an attempt to make the visual element completely controlled, and the result was the opposite - a visual element that was never controlled, because it would always behave differently in different situations.
Now we can control the look of a web page externally. But this is real control, because we know that there is no control. We know that browsers are different. We know that people's settings are different. We know not to try to control down to the millimetre. Real control has flexibility in it.
More importantly, the content of the web page is now the content. Elements are used to signify what they were designed to signify, not just used because of the way we think they will look. It's getting dangerously close to real communication! And communication is the wonderful thing about the Internet.
Plenty of people complain about, well, everything really, but specifically in this context they complain about the new specifications. Yes, I guess they complain each time there is a new specification. There are grumblings about the W3C. But I have never found any substance in the complaints. I see the developments they are making as completely positive in all ways.
I feel a good feeling when I write in XHTML. I was starting to feel good with HTML 4.01. But I feel bad when I can write loose code without consequences. Imagine all those unclosed elements (even the empty elements)! Imagine the improper nesting! Ugh. So just be thankful that everything will make a lot more sense in the future, and get started making well-formed documents!!! Oh, and please don't complain about the new specifications. I have already heard it. All comments welcome about how good XHTML is looking!
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