Re: Is XHTML a dead end?

Andrew Watt writes:

>"Is XHTML worth persevering with?

Well, let's consider the alternatives:

1 - HTML (4.0?):  How long will the industry live with its limitations?  Not forever.

2 - XML + CSS + some hyperlinking mechanism:  Well, that's my preferred scenario, but even if the W3C agreed on a 
hyperlinking mechanism TODAY, it would be a hard sell to non-geeks.  

3 - Flash or "Blackbird.NET" (a hypothetical IE-specific proprietary extension to HTML; I have no idea if it exists 
in a lab somewhere, but why would a dominant vendor fail to push the browser markup language forward if the W3C 
drops the ball?)

As much as I would like to live in World #2, World #3 seems infinitely more likely IMHO.  Nature and marketplaces 
abhor a vacuum; if the W3C doesn't advance the hypertext markup language standard to meet evolving needs, the 
marketplace will find something to declare a de facto standard. 

[off to read the "Flash MX Bible" that I bought the other day, sigh]

Received on Thursday, 26 September 2002 17:57:29 UTC