Re: XHTML 1.x mime type document

On 24 Dec, Dean Edridge wrote:

>>   No. It is quite possible to write an XHTML 1.* document, label it as
>>   text/html, and make it valid.
> 
> The mime type is authoritative and rules over syntax. If you save a web 
> page using a web browser and it saves it with a .html or .htm file 
> extension, it is HTML *not* XHTML, this is an inconvenient truth for a 
> lot of people.

  I again have to correct this. The DTD determine which syntax a HTML or
  XHTML 1.* document should conform to.

  This is easily seen if you look at the various HTML family languages,
  all of which use text/html, but not all of which conform to the same
  syntax rules (e.g. HTML 3.2 and HTML 4.01 Strict).




>>   With the current situation regarding browser support being as it is,
>>   we judged this a good, if interim, solution to aid migration.
>>   
> 
> Migration to what? Invalid HTML 4?

  As I pointed out: save two attributes an XHTML 1.* document is, in
  most cases, valid HTML 4.

  But if we ARE to be equally as technically precise as I was in my
  above correction then yes. XHTML 1.* will be, if validated against a
  HTML 4.* DTD, syntactically invalid due to the xmlns attribute.

  However, this WILL aid authors in migrating to USING XHTML, which is
  what the Note in question is designed to do.

-- 
 - Tina Holmboe       siteSifter                  Greytower Technologies
            http://www.sitesifter.co.uk          http://www.greytower.net
      Website Quality and Accessibility Testing

Received on Tuesday, 23 December 2008 23:36:01 UTC