Since the early days of the World Wide Web, HTML has been the standard language for creating web pages. In recent years, however, a new standard called XHTML has emerged. While HTML and XHTML share some similarities, there are also some key differences between them. In this article, we’ll take a look at those differences and discuss why XHTML may be a better choice for your next web project.
What is XHTML?
XHTML is a markup language that is a variant of HTML. It is commonly used to structure and present content on the World Wide Web. While both HTML and XHTML are based on XML, XHTML is more strictly defined than HTML. As a result, XHTML is generally considered to be more reliable and easier to work with than HTML. However, because XHTML is more restrictive than HTML, it can be more difficult to create pages that render correctly in all browsers. For this reason, many web developers continue to use HTML rather than XHTML. Nonetheless, XHTML is an important part of the web development landscape and is worth understanding for any web developer.
What is HTML5?
HTML5 is the fifth and most recent major version of HTML, the standard markup language for creating web pages. HTML5 was first released in October 2014. The major difference between HTML5 and earlier versions of HTML is that HTML5 includes new features that make it more effective for creating multimedia content and applications. For example, HTML5 includes support for audio and video elements, which can be used to embed media directly into web pages.
HTML5 also includes new input types, such as emailaddress and number, which make it easier to collect specific types of information from users. In addition, HTML5 introduces a variety of new tags, including header, footer, article, and section, which improve the structure and organization of web pages. Overall, HTML5 provides a more powerful and flexible way to create web pages and applications.
Difference between XHTML and HTML5
XHTML and HTML5 are both markup languages used for structuring and formatting content on web pages. The biggest difference between the two is that XHTML is a stricter, more well-defined language, while HTML5 is a newer, more flexible language.
- In XHTML, all elements must be properly nested and closed, and all attributes must be quoted. This can make code more verbose and difficult to read, but it also leads to more consistent rendering across browsers.
- HTML5, on the other hand, is designed to be more forgiving. Elements can be left unclosed, and attributes don’t need to be quotes. This can make for cleaner, more readable code, but it can also lead to inconsistencies in how the page is rendered in different browsers.
- So which one should you use? If you need maximum compatibility with older browsers, XHTML is the way to go. If you’re willing to sacrifice some older browser compatibility for the sake of cleaner code, HTML5 is the better choice.
Conclusion
In conclusion, HTML5 is the next step in the evolution of web development. It offers a number of advantages over XHTML, including greater flexibility and support for multimedia content. If you are looking to create or update a website, it is worth learning about HTML5 and considering using it in your project.