What is XHTML?

XHTML is the abbreviation of Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language. This consists of two parts: HTML & XML. Let’s get our hands dirty by learning basics of these two first.

HTML: HTML is a language defined as an application of Standard Generalised Markup Language (SGML). It is a markup language used to create web pages conforming to internet protocol standards. HTML allows producing web documents which can display text, images, etc. Language is very flexible in nature but code becomes very complex due to this flexibility. The very last version of this language was HTML 4.01.

XML: XML is also a subset of SGML language however this is much more restrictive in nature. This provides a set of rules following which the program/code becomes much simple, general, usable and understandable.

Now let’s continue understanding what XHTML is

the markup language developed in 1999 to implement HTML as an XML format and thought to be a newest and hottest thing. XHTML (extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is a family of XML markup languages that are extend versions of the generally used language Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language in which web pages are written. XHTML is the stricter and cleaner form of HTML and is very much identical to HTML 4.01. XHTML is responsible for the structure of the web pages whereas presentation is handled by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The first version of it is known as XHTML 1.0. It used the existing three document types of HTML and reformulated them as applications of XML which is an enormously useful, powerful and very strict way of marking up pure data.

XHTML is the recommendation of W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium), an organisation to make and maintain standards for the Internet and its associated technologies. XHTML brought the following benefits to the web industry:
1. Web pages becomes interoperable and compatible with all kind of browsers and devices
2. Web pages are written clean and easily understandable
3. Web pages are more easy to edit, maintain and convertr
Web developers and web designers are eager for continuous discover of the new ways to express their dreams through new markup languages. XML enables them to introduce new elements or additional element attributes more easily. The XHTML is designed to accommodate this extension through modules and techniques for developing new XHTML-conforming modules. These modules will permit the combination of existing and new feature sets.
What restrictions does this apply to code?
• XHTML document must have a DOCTYPE declaration at the top of the document
• XHTML documents must have only one root element
• XHTML elements must be properly nested
• XHTML elements must always be closed
• XHTML elements must all be in lowercase
• XHTML tags attribute names must be in lower case
• XHTML tags attribute values must be quoted
• XHTML tags attribute minimization is forbidde

This is all for understanding basics of XHTML responsible for creating structure of the web pages. The CSS which is basically responsible for the handling of the presentations of the web pages should come next in our articles base. Please visit back soon.