Re: Start with HTML or XHTML? (slightly OT)

At 06:35 13/03/02 -0600, LSN Bluff wrote:
<snip/>
>Would you recommend that a beginner start with HTML and later transition 
>to XHTML? OR would you recommend that the beginner start coding pages 
>using XHTML syntax right from the start?

Start with XHTML 1.0 Strict. It has fewer elements to learn, fewer nasty 
constructs, and it imposes rigor. Spend some time with XHTML 1.0 
Transitional, because they will have to use it sometimes, but they should 
be taught to aim for strict and only drop into transitional when necessary.

They should definitely be educated about HTML at some point, because they 
will have to work with it eventually, but you should emphasize all the bad 
things about it, like the FONT element, and optional closing tags.

If you start with HTML they will have to unlearn bad habits. Human nature 
means they will probably retain some. The same goes for learning 
Transitional before Strict, but to a lesser extent.

Andrew

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