[HTML Guide] HTML or XHTML

[Iszak]

So the point of that is.. Use HTML, not XHTML

Well this is entirely up to the individual and their purposes as the conclusion is trying to state. But I personally suggest HTML 4.01 Strict as said in the conclusion browsers and search engines are better in rendering this.

What do you expect from "know-it-all" new kids to the block trinity... honestly.

Everyone on this forum uses HTML anyway, so this is completly useless as the correct specs for XHTML will be released in years to come as new browsers slowly update and improve on XHTML rendering capabilities.

I've seen people use XHTML on this forum over HTML, and as for your statement about XHTML specifications it is wrong. XHTML 1.0 specifications have been outlined and aren't set to change they were in outlined in 2000 and became a W3C recommended in the same year, so browsers have had many years to be compliant to it with Internet Explorer 7 being released in 2006 it had 6 years to become compliant.


Also

I’m aware this is a lengthy read but anyone who wants to be knowledge in developing websites it is worth it.

It's not intended to be an idiots guide to developing websites or what to chose. Idiots don't really care if their site works in most browsers the only care about theirs. Not to mention they usually develop in tables, this guide is for people who are serious about web development not an idiot. But good point none the less.

[Source]

I worded my response badly, I meant we need to wait for browsers to fully move out that have bad support (ie when people stop using older browsers such as IE6 etc.. and move onto the newer better alternatives.)

But still... generally people still use HTML this just seems like another "hypertext"ish thread to gain some ego within the community.

[Iszak]

Ah okay, you're right there but that could take many years unfortunently and with Internet Explorer 8 still lacking support of XHTML it doesn't look like it's going to have full support anytime soon unless everyone switches to a browser that supports it, although Internet Explorer is still in beta so it could be subject to change.

But still... generally people still use HTML this just seems like another "hypertext"ish thread to gain some ego within the community.

Not so much ego but more so respect but you were pretty much dead on. But it is also designed to inform people who are using XHTML.

[Source]

Its just the way you are putting things across makes you seem overly big headed and wants to out-do everyone, if you tone things down and remember what sort of forum you are on then people will respect you alot more. They want the help... without the lecture, even though its tempting to sit them down and say "Blah blah you idiot this is why....".

And lets face it, loads of people are still on IE6 even though IE7 is out... I doubt people would move over to IE8 even if it did have amazing support for XHTML and was at last fully standards complient.

[Iszak]

Well I didn't intend for it to be like that, I guess it's how you interupt it. Regardless of this if people want to learn why it's generally better to use HTML over XHTML then they'll read about it.

You are right about people not switching to Internet Explorer 8 even if it had great XHTML support, it's more the front end web developers who want browsers to be compliant because it makes our job harder if it's not as well as users switching to the latest browsers.

[iUnknown]

Most of the users on this forum are teenagers. Your article is good but it's length will put most users off. Try and cut bits out, or make them shorter... in future.

[L?KE]

Didn't bother reading it cos it looked boring. Make it more pleasing to the eye

Nevertheless, looks like you put some effort into it, so +rep.

[Iszak]

Basic Overview to the HUGE HTML or XHTML Article
Due to a number of people saying that the article is way to long which I agree to an extent - if you really want to learn you've got to put the effort into it. Anyhow this is pretty much the main reason why you should use HTML over XHTML although on the original it states it's up to you - which it is.


Content type
Everything has a content type, GIF images have “image/gif”, Javascript is “text/javascript” and CSS is “text/css”, so why should HTML and XHTML be any different? Well they’re not, HTML has text/html and XHTML is “application/xhtml+xml”

XHTML sent as HTML
Well if you’ve got an XHTML website it’s likely to be sent as HTML this is due to the server configuration, and by default “.php” files are also sent as text/html. So this means your XHTML will be rendered as broken HTML because the browser will simply see “<br />” as an error and correct it to “<br>”

XHTML sent as XHTML
So your site is being sent as the proper content type, application/xhtml+xml but this will cause Internet Explorer (all versions) to give you a dialogue so either way you either choose a) lose XHTML features by having it rendered as HTML or b) make all internet users unable to view your website


Conclusion
There are various other reasons why you should not use XHTML at the present time, but as stated the main reason is the content type, Internet Explorer doesn’t support it, lots of people use Internet Explorer. Why use XHTML if it’s being rendered as HTML and you lose all the features of XHTML, there’s no point so instead use HTML 4.01 Strict which is more familiar with browsers and search engines over XHTML 1.0 or XHMTL 1.1.

[Hypertext]

Well this is entirely up to the individual and their purposes as the conclusion is trying to state. But I personally suggest HTML 4.01 Strict as said in the conclusion browsers and search engines are better in rendering this.

I've seen people use XHTML on this forum over HTML, and as for your statement about XHTML specifications it is wrong. XHTML 1.0 specifications have been outlined and aren't set to change they were in outlined in 2000 and became a W3C recommended in the same year, so browsers have had many years to be compliant to it with Internet Explorer 7 being released in 2006 it had 6 years to become compliant.


Also

It's not intended to be an idiots guide to developing websites or what to chose. Idiots don't really care if their site works in most browsers the only care about theirs. Not to mention they usually develop in tables, this guide is for people who are serious about web development not an idiot. But good point none the less.

Since when do search engines render (X)HTML?

Also, the way you've written this, only somebody who was very advanced would understand it, yet it's giving information to someone who is less advanced, defeating the purpose of learning...

Also, how the hell did nobody mention doc types?

[Iszak]

It was in context of parsing / rendering XHTML sorry if you got confused by this I'll be sure to use 'parse' for future reference. It wouldn't designed for people who are new to web development as already stated, more so the advance and I made a basic one for people who wanted to know as posted above. As for doctypes everyone (I'd presume) uses doctypes so there is really no need to mention it, hardly relevent on why you should use HTML over XHTML.