Junior
What is the difference between HTML and XHTML?
sobes.tech AI
Answer from AI
XHTML is HTML rewritten using XML rules.
Main differences:
- Syntax: XHTML is more strict and requires XML rules:
- All tags must be closed (even single ones, e.g.,
<br/>). - Tag and attribute names are case-sensitive (usually lowercase).
- Attribute values must be enclosed in quotes.
- Proper nesting of tags.
- All tags must be closed (even single ones, e.g.,
- Document type: XHTML requires an XML declaration and DOCTYPE to specify the version.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - Error handling: Browsers are more tolerant of errors in HTML, trying to fix them. In XHTML, parsing may stop on errors.
- Namespaces: XHTML can use XML namespaces to include elements from other languages (e.g., MathML, SVG) in the document.
HTML (especially HTML5) has become more flexible and forgiving of syntax errors, ensuring backward compatibility. XHTML was developed to ensure better compatibility with XML parsers, integration with XML applications, and improved semantics, but it did not become widely adopted.