RE: Difference 'twixt XHTML and XML?

> SGML = Standardised Generalised Markup Language.  A set of rules for
> creating text-based markup languages, quite complex.
>
> XML = a simplified subset of SGML which is more user-friendly
>
> HTML = an application of SGML
>
> XHTML = HTML rewritten using the limited XML subset.
>
> It means complying with a few extra rules like closing all tags, etc.  If
> you thought Netscape was fussy, XHTML requirements are just as fussy, if
> not worse.
>
> The advantage is that HTML is a stand-alone application whereas XML
> technologies can all talk to each other.  It also means being able to be
> interpreted by browser devices that don't have an inbuilt
> knowledge of HTML.

Surely XML is a stand-alone application in that systems do not need an
inbuilt knowledge of HTML as you put. HTML needs a browser of some
description to interpret the code.

Anyway if xhtml = more strict, I think it is a good thing.
I know I used to be sloppy about validation - I never even used to check my
pages could be viewed in NN (the 8th deadly sin :-). Then I found Linux so
had to use NN.
Since I have started to validate however, I find the less time I actually
have to spend validating it due to my improved knowledge of the things that
don't work. I wrote a site from scratch the other day and the only thing I
had to validate was a banner advert script.

Thanks to all who have helped.
I shall certainly be considering converting my site to XML and XHTML as a
little test (I will be interested to see whether the site is almost
validatable (is that a word?) just by swapping over to an XHTML DTD)

Ben Bradley UK
http://www.thenetzone.co.uk
'dot comming small business'

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