XML, HTML, XHTML....Oh God I'm so confused!

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-07-19 11:40pm

Ok, so I would like to open up my very own little website and stuff; I know a bit of HTML, so I thought it would be pretty easy.

But what's the deal with XHTML? XML? Do I have to know it? I've Googled it quite a bit, and all I can piece together is that XHTML appears to be more compatible, whatever the hell that means...

TempestMagister · Post by **TempestMagister** » 2004-07-20 12:01am

XHTML is basically a standardized and more constricted form of HTML in order to help coders all around the web able to understand each other's HTML code. There really isn't anything special to it.

XML, well, its a little complex, but basically as I can remember, it is a language that allows the coder to basically set-up his/her little coding language, and easily be integrate Pearl and ASP. It allows the flexibility and power of customizing websites made from Standardized General Markup Languages, while having the simplicity and ease of HTML. One book said it has 90% the power SGML with 10% of the difficulty. It is simply put, a metalanguage for dealing with all webpage elements, including those of webpages viewed on different systems, such as on mobile phones, or sending web-oriented information to gaming clients.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-07-20 12:05am

From w3.org:

What is XHTML?

The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML?) is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML, reformulated in XML. XHTML Family document types are all XML-based, and ultimately are designed to work in conjunction with XML-based user agents. XHTML is the successor of HTML, and a series of specifications has been developed for XHTML.

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

*****

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.

http://www.w3.org/XML/

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Lots more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-07-20 12:28am

Damn! Why didn't I think of Wikipedia? I'm an idiot.

Alright, thanks...I think I'll stick to HTML...question for anyone w/ a webpage, what do you use? Any fancy scripts or anything?

Damaramu · Post by **Damaramu** » 2004-07-20 01:45am

For my craptastic page (my java scrpiting doesn't work properly with Firefox), I just use plain old HTML. I've personally never found a reason why I should use the other formats.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-07-20 06:56pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Damn! Why didn't I think of Wikipedia? I'm an idiot.

Alright, thanks...I think I'll stick to HTML...question for anyone w/ a webpage, what do you use? Any fancy scripts or anything?

I use XHTML, just in case I decide to use XSLT to transform the HTML for me.
I try to avoid client side scripts, though I do have a PHP script that lets users switch the CSS.

I might switch the site to XML (custom DTD) using XSLT to convert it to XHTML, making maintenance easier, and allowing for more drastic changes than CSS alone allows.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-07-20 07:05pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Damn! Why didn't I think of Wikipedia? I'm an idiot.

Alright, thanks...I think I'll stick to HTML...question for anyone w/ a webpage, what do you use? Any fancy scripts or anything?

Start with something simple (keep the layout, etc as simple as possible) and gradually build up. CSS is a very good thing to learn to use, as it cuts down on the amount of work you need to do to change colors, and it also makes coding easier.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-07-22 12:00pm

This is what I understand of it:

HTML: the language that people use to make webpages. It has like, tags and stuff, and they're hardcoded according to some standard (except Internut Exploder which sucks balls).

XML takes the idea of the tags, and makes some standarizations, like: tags ALWAYS go in pairs, or else you have to end them in "/>", and how you're supposed to write attributes, and that you must have a single external tag containing everything. Tags are arbitrary, meaning that you don't have <img> or <embed> tags, you make your own tags for your own type of document. You can have a <book> tag that contains <chapter> tags for a library reference doc, for instance.

XHTML is XML applied to HTML: same tags as HTML but you must obey the rules, that's why you see several pages now with <img src="xxx /> (with the / at the end) because they're adapting the XHTML standard. But it's basically the exact same thing as regular HTML.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-07-22 10:28pm

Slartibartfast wrote:This is what I understand of it:

HTML: the language that people use to make webpages. It has like, tags and stuff, and they're hardcoded according to some standard (except Internut Exploder which sucks balls).

XML takes the idea of the tags, and makes some standarizations, like: tags ALWAYS go in pairs, or else you have to end them in "/>", and how you're supposed to write attributes, and that you must have a single external tag containing everything. Tags are arbitrary, meaning that you don't have <img> or <embed> tags, you make your own tags for your own type of document. You can have a <book> tag that contains <chapter> tags for a library reference doc, for instance.

XHTML is XML applied to HTML: same tags as HTML but you must obey the rules, that's why you see several pages now with <img src="xxx /> (with the / at the end) because they're adapting the XHTML standard. But it's basically the exact same thing as regular HTML.

An advantage of XHTML is that if you hand code sites and make sure it's sending the xml+xhtml MIME (won't work in IE, you need to have a server side script or something to do this), and use a browser other than IE, pages will not work at all if there are any syntax errors, which helps to validate pages. That's a lot of ifs though.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2004-07-23 12:23am

XML is geared for, well, anything you can think of involving the categorization of data. For example, preference files on OS X are XML-compliant files, using key/value pairs. From what I understand, some Linux distros employ this method of storing preferences, as well.