XHTML vs HTML: Round 2
When XHTML was first released nearly everyone, myself included, rushed headlong into it. Countless websites were shredded, old HTML code was stripped out and rebuilt using XHTML syntax under the watchful eye of the W3 validators. When it was over, the dust settled and, for a time, everyone tried to pretend HTML no longer existed — scorning those who had the audacity to still use HTML.
Time passed. People began realizing that XHTML wasn’t the save all and be all that it was supposed to be: some popular browsers (cough: IE) couldn’t even properly render its content type of application/xhtml+xml, so developers were stuck calling it XHTML and pretending that it was truly XHTML+XML, but they were really just dishing out HTML that was properly formatted.
This is not to say that the “XHTML rush” ™ was bad or that it didn’t advance technologies and the semantic nature of programming: it, with the help of CSS, helped to banish the hack and slash methods that were intrinsic in the 1990’s because people started realizing what each tag really meant and peer pressure abounded. In the end, however, all it did was make people aware of the rules that were already there, and in the process forced users to break other rules.
Finally the stigma of using semantically-correct HTML, inside the industry, is wearing off (although outside of it XHTML is still a buzz-word) and developers are realizing that XHTML wasn’t really the thing to use—instead it was just a good, clean language to use when it was needed, and some are slowly trickling back to serving just plain-ol’ HTML— albeit it this time with clean markup and remembering the lessons XHTML taught us.
Well it is on the verge of happening again: X/HTML 5.0 and XHTML 2.0 are both in development, and they both are trying to make their own mark on the browser space, but in the process they are just going to cause more trouble because the last time the (X)/HTML wars began XHTML 1.0 was, on the surface, HTML 4.0 with a few more rules. However, this time they are trying to go in separate directions, and the problem is that they both are doing some things correctly. (If you haven’t been keeping up with developments and want to read a comparison on what is and is not being done correctly read xhtml.com’s X/HTML 5 Versus XHTML 2)
While the competition will be good, in some ways, and the professionals will reason out the best language to use and why, the fame wars are going to start up again, so be ready for it and get out your favorite fan-boy insults because only one language is going to survive.
This rant was brought to you by the letter X and the number 3. Oh and in case you are wondering, this site is perfectly valid XHTML using the XHTML 1.1 DTD being served as text/html with .html extension.