Re: Promotion of XHTML

"Ineke van der Maat" <inekemaa@xs4all.nl>
> You wrote:
> >The problem is making people care about doing something the /right/
> way.<
>
> Can you tell me what the differeence is  between learning a foreign
> language using the correct grammar and semantics, and learning an
> internetlanguage (in this case XHTML)  and  also using the correct
> grammar and semantics?

I don't agree, the key thing with foriegn language is being able to get
the job done, ie understand, and be understood, proper grammar helps, but
doesn't help that much, especially with English where grammar is often
rather perverse, and trying to use correct grammar can often get in the
way of actual communication as you concentrate on getting grammar right,
rather than just getting your idea across.  Correct grammar helps, but it
doesn't make such a difference that you won't get your meal, or into your
hotel.

This is the same with web authoring, the key thing is communication of the
content, correct grammar helps, but it's not essential, the content is
essential.  I will never use XHTML, whilst the XML application well
formedness requirements is taken by XHTML browsers as meaning don't render
if there's any mistake (this is different to SVG's approach, where
rendering happens despite well-formedness errors) because whilst my QA
should mean no invalid documents are served, I don't want to take the risk
(especially with proxies altering content on the way.)

So there's no difference between foriegn languages and mark-up languages,
the most important thing is communication, not the grammar.

Jim.

Received on Wednesday, 1 January 2003 18:25:15 UTC