What is XHTML

This article is the 2002 for the Silicon Valley dynamic website translation of the manuscript. At that time xhtml1.0 was just beginning to be contacted by designers, so there is the following basic question and answer.

HTML language is our tool to build Web pages, from the advent of its development to the present, standardize constantly improve, more and more powerful. However, there are still defects and deficiencies, people continue to improve it, so that it more easily controlled and flexible to adapt to the rapid application of the network needs. At the end of 2000, the International World Wide Web Consortium announced the release of the XHTML 1.0 version, what is the difference between XHTML and Html,xml, and what new features it adds, so let's get to the initial understanding of XHTML today.

XHTML 1.0 is a new language that is optimized and improved on the basis of HTML 4.0, and is designed to be based on XML applications. XHTML is an enhanced HTML, and its scalability and flexibility will accommodate more requirements for future network applications. The following is a common basic question about XHTML that is answered by Steven Pemberton, chairman of the HTML Working Group of the Consortium.

Q: What is XHTML?

A: XHTML is an HTML that has been rebuilt to accommodate XML. When XML becomes more and more of a trend, the question arises: if we have XML, do we still need HTML? In order to answer this question, we held a two-day working meeting in San Francisco in May 1998, and the meeting concluded: need. We still need to use HTML. Because a lot of people are used to using HTML as their design language, and millions of pages have been written in HTML.

Q: Why does XHTML 1.0 grow independently of HTML 4.0?

A: That's not true. XHTML is exactly the re-organization of HTML 4.0, which is exactly HTML 4.01, a revised version of HTML 4.0, but named distribution in XHTML 1.0. Their explanations in XML have some necessary differences, but on the other hand they are still very similar, and we can think of XHTML work as a continuation of HTML 4.0.

Q: How does XHTML 1.0 implement XML standards?

A: XHTML is an XML application. It takes the XML DTD file format definition and runs on XML-enabled systems. Thanks to the namespaces capabilities of XML, browser manufacturers do not need to create new private tags (tags), they only need to include XML snippets in XHTML code, or XML code contains XHTML snippets.

Q: What are the main advantages of XHTML 1.0?

A: XML is the trend of web development, so people are eager to join the trend of XML. With XHTML 1.0, you can design a page that fits both the XML system and most of the current HTML browsers, as long as you follow some simple rules carefully. This means that you can design XML right away without waiting for people to use browsers that support XML. This guideline enables a smooth transition of the Web to XML.

Another advantage of using XHTML is that it's very tight. The bad situation of HTML on the current network is shocking, the early browsers accept private HTML tags, so people have to use a variety of browsers to detect the page after the page design, to see whether it is compatible, there are often many inexplicable differences, people have to modify the design to adapt to different browsers.