Re: What is better to conform to?

scripsit Jim Ley:
> 
> "Thanasis Kinias" tkinias@optimalco.com
> 
> >> What is better to conform to, HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0?
> >>
> >> or what are the reasons for conforming to either...?
> 
> >Unless you are using authoring tools which cannot produce valid HTML
> >(e.g., Dreamweaver not too long ago), there's no reason to use HTML 4
> >any more.  XHTML 1.0 is the current W3C recommendation, and has been for
> >several years.
> 
> HTML 4.01 is also a current W3C recommendation, and has the advantage of
> being renderable in current user agents, and servable as text/html without
> having to go through a whole raft of "compatibility guidelines" that
> aren't machine testable (yet?)

a) If you go to <http://www.w3.org/TR/html/>, you will find the current
recommendation for HTML -- and it is XHTML 1.0, 2d ed.  HTML 4.01 is _a_
current W3C recommendation, as is XHTML 1.1, Ruby Annotation, WCAG 1.0,
etc., but none of the others are _the_ current HTML rec.

b) The "compatability guidelines" aren't that onerous, and if you avoid
a few things like using <script /> even NS4 can parse it without undue
hassle -- unlike, for example, CSS1.  Just using valid HTML 4.01 isn't
proof against browser testing either -- various MSIE versions will still
horribly misrender some valid HTML 4.01, too.

> If your authoring tool can't create valid HTML, why is HTML 4 any more use
> than XHTML 1?

I apologize for that:  I mistyped -- I meant valid _XHTML_.  Dreamweaver
specifically will silently replace instances of `selected="selected"' on
checkboxes with the invalid minimized form `selected'.  This is fine in
old-style HTML, but not in X(HT)ML.

> If XHTML 1 has been _the_ current W3C recommendation - what is the status
> of XHTML 1.1?

See (a) above.

-- 
Thanasis Kinias
Web Developer, Information Technology
Graduate Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.

Ash nazg durbatul�k, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatul�k agh burzum-ishi krimpatul

Received on Monday, 5 August 2002 03:05:21 UTC