Why Learn HTML, XHTML

[itmortiz]

If there's one who like design maybe could explain to me:

"Why is important to learn HTML"?
"HTML will be deprecated someday"?
"WYSIWYG, what do you recommend"? (GNU/GPL and Shareware)

Thanks a lot.

morti<

[PC-XT]

HTML is the main language served directly to browsers. Others have been tried, but HTML seems to stick around. There was another language for mobile devices, but now special CSS is just used to restyle HTML for them instead. XHTML is based on HTML, and I count them basically the same thing. The plan was to deprecate HTML in favor of XHTML. Many were unsure if HTML 4.01, which is basically XHTML 1.0, would be the last version of HTML, but now they have HTML 5, which includes tags to solve problems with media, such as audio, as well as other changes. I think HTML/XHTML is middle aged or younger. Though its elements will be deprecated when they find better ways to do things, it won't be entirely deprecated for years, at least, and browsers will most likely continue to support it more years after that. As for a WYSIWYG, I try them sometimes and often find something I like about them, like how easy it is to add or delete columns in tables. However, since I prefer working in raw HTML, I don't use them enough to give an overall recommendation.

[mjnc]

@PC-XT

I've read some articles lately where some developers explain why they are
switching from XHTML 1.0 strict back to HTML 4.01 strict.

As I understand it, their reasons are that most common browsers don't really
understand XHTML unless it is 'served as' HTML which really was not what was
intended.

What some are doing, and this seems reasonable to me, is that they are keeping
the 'good' aspects of XHTML such as well-formedness and semantic structure
but removing the closing / on empty elements which just confuses the browser.

What are your thoughts on that?

[PC-XT]

Yes, browsers are rarely up to standard, because the standard keeps changing. This ensures HTML will stick around for awhile, even if it is deprecated. I like XHTML closings, but it didn't work at first because I didn't put a space before the / when used in a single tag. I haven't had any problems with it since, though if I ever do, I'll just use HTML instead. HTML tags without the slash are nice in their own way. It depends on what I'm doing. I try to use XHTML so if I have problems I can usually switch to HTML with little effort.

The mime type for xhtml is "application/xhtml+xml" instead of just "text/html". Older browsers don't know this new type, so consider it a file to download or some other thing. Because of this, most people, including me, continue to make their xhtml compatible with html so they can serve it as html. In this way, we are free to choose which ml is best for our situation. Sometimes using application/xhtml+xml is better, though, as it follows the standard, and browsers that recognize it may handle it better. Supposedly, XHTML5 pages must be sent with the new mime type. There are ways to detect which mime type to send to which browser, but they just seem to complicate things because there isn't really a standard across browsers. Then, there are xml mime types, which get more complicated.

I found the discussion at http://techpatterns.com/forums/about130.html and the one at the first link on that page to be interesting, also http://techpatterns.com/forums/about138.html which shows a way of detecting for mime type support. Another is at http://www.astahost.com/info.php/Det...ers_t9521.html.

[mjnc]

Thanks for the links.

Here are some that I have saved:
Understanding HTML, XML and XHTML

No to XHTML

Beware of XHTML

[olanor]

Originally Posted by itmortiz

If there's one who like design maybe could explain to me:

"Why is important to learn HTML"?
"HTML will be deprecated someday"?
"WYSIWYG, what do you recommend"? (GNU/GPL and Shareware)

Thanks a lot.

morti<

1. Because HTML is requirement in advanced-design (sometime WYSIWYG cannot serve some function. You need to edit it manually).
2. Someday maybe in next 10 years
3. I dunno. (I use Dreamweaver and Notepad++ together)