James makes the case for choosing HTML over XHTML. He makes several good points, but overlooks what is, to me, the single biggest reason to use HTML: because HTML is clearly the future, not XHTML. Today, the choice is mostly arbitrary. In my opinion, neither markup language offers significant advantages or disadvantages compared to the other. But, it’s clear (at least to me) that HTML5 is where things are going, so stepping away from XHTML now may better prepare you for the future.
That having been said, I still keep using XHTML out of habit, even if I think HTML is the better choice. :)
001 // Brian McKinney // 06.18.2008 // 9:54 AM
I was interested to see what you had to say on this Jeff, as I knew you are a XHTML doctype guy. I’m with you as far as just using XHTML purely out of habit, although James does raise some good points for using HTML 4.
002 // Jeff Croft // 06.18.2008 // 10:22 AM
Like I said, I’m not sure it makes much difference at all today, but I do think HTML5 is where things are headed, so for that reason alone it might make more sense to stick with HTML. Really, I’d say as long as you’re keeping up on what’s going on with HTML5, it probably doesn’t matter what DOCTYPE you use in the meantime.
003 // Matthew Pennell // 06.19.2008 // 2:16 AM
Have to agree with you, Jeff. I’d even go as far as to say we should be using HTML5 right now (or the doctype, anyway); there are no negative implications, plus it addresses the potential IE8-rendering-engine switch problem.
It’s tough breaking myself of the closing-slash habit, though.
004 // Matt Robin // 06.19.2008 // 4:57 PM
HTML5 is the way to go - definitely, but I’m staying with XHTML out of habit right now and HTML5 isn’t supported as well in some of the older browsers that people ‘might’ still be using. HTML5 soon then! :)
005 // Matthew Pennell // 06.20.2008 // 1:36 AM
@Matt (and anyone else) - which browsers are you still coding for that don’t support HTML5? It throws all modern browsers into standards mode, and there’s no need to use the new unsupported elements yet.
Further reading:
http://ejohn.org/blog/html5-doctype/ http://snook.ca/archives/browsers/importance_of_being_html5/
006 // Kevin Cannon // 06.20.2008 // 10:38 AM
Just a small note. HTML5 can be expressed as XHTML too, so that’s not a reason to continue using XHTML.