XHTML: WHAT IT ISN'T (PART 2 OF 4)

As discussed previously, XHTML is based on XML, which is widely (but inaccurately) regarded as the web's "super" markup language.  True, XHTML is designed to work in concert with XML-based software (i.e., browsers).  But it isn't XML.

This is an important distinction.  The trick is to remember that XML isn't so much a language as it is a framework of rules behind a family of languages.  True, the XML framework is used to describe and manipulate web-hosted data, and it does make use of markup tags, but it is still primarily a framework.  As such, XML is decidedly not the tool of choice for formatting and displaying typical web content.

This is exactly why so many developers believe XML was never intended as a replacement for HTML, nor was it intended for wide use on conventional web sites.

By comparison, XHTML allows developers to create web content using something similar to HTML, while enabling them to incorporate XML if needed.  XHTML documents offer high compatibility with applications — both script- and applet-based.  Further, XHTML utilizes applications that can rely on either the HTML document object model or the XML document object model.

According to the W3C consortium, the XHTML standard is "the next step in the evolution of the Internet."  Industry experts support the W3C's recommendation that web developers migrate to XHTML.  Developers that do so can "enter the XML world with all of its attendant benefits, confident in their content's backward and future compatibility."

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