Stealing from Jeff: XHTML vs. HTML

by Mike on 9/28/2006

in The Intarweb, Webloggia

For the time being I’m only stealing links from Jeff.

He helpfully points out some recent work showing that most so-called “valid XHTML” really is no such thing.

These sources have more on why:

One big reason: there’s no good way to serve XHTML to all browsers with a valid MIME type. And that apparently matters.

(If this post means absolutely nothing to you, then congratulations, it means you have a life and don’t have to worry about this kind of stuff. Say hi to the world for me.)

  • http://1isa2isb.wordpress.com/ Nedsferatu

    Well you can always sniff for the browser. I have used this great php script that builds the first 5 or 6 lines of your site from scratch.

    another reason why xhtml sites don’t validate is that if you have any user input data, or very much dynamic content at all, it’s very hard to make sure every tee is crossed and every eye dotted. it is the static page crusaders who end up with the validating sites.

    I do agree that many many people don’t know what a mime is or how to use it and could benefit in a lesson on http. good stuff!

  • http://1isa2isb.wordpress.com Nedsferatu

    Well you can always sniff for the browser. I have used this great php script that builds the first 5 or 6 lines of your site from scratch.

    another reason why xhtml sites don’t validate is that if you have any user input data, or very much dynamic content at all, it’s very hard to make sure every tee is crossed and every eye dotted. it is the static page crusaders who end up with the validating sites.

    I do agree that many many people don’t know what a mime is or how to use it and could benefit in a lesson on http. good stuff!

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