Slashdot Mirror
The Web's Future: XHTML 2.0
Lee writes "Over the years, HTML has only become bigger, never smaller, because new versions had to maintain backward compatibility. That's about to change. On 5 August 2002, the first working draft of XHTML 2.0 was released and the big news is that backward compatibility has been dropped; the language can finally move on. So, what do you as a developer get in return? How about robust forms and events, a better way to look at frames and even hierarchical menus that don't require massive amounts of JavaScript. This article takes a sneak peek at what's new in XHTML 2.0 and how you might one day put it to use."
That has to be the dorkiest article write-up I've ever seen on Slashdot. It sounds like a story from those fake news shows they show on airplanes.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
After reading the article (a good one, by the way), I have to wonder whether any of this will ever be used in practice.
There's got to be more backwards compatability, or it's just not going to be adopted. I have this horrible vision of every major website replacing their initial homepage with a front door: "For XHTML 2, click here. For everything else, click here." and their entire site duplicated. Yeah, right.
I really like the idea, though. Mark it up based on content not presentation, so that multiple browsers and other tools can all make sense of the page, and use another tool (here, CSS) to make it look pretty. Hmmmmm...... holy shit! they've invented TeX!
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Well, really I was talking about the gee-whiz in-the-year-2000-we'll-have-laser-pants tone. You make a good point, though. While the move to edutainment is not going fast enough for some people, science-based TV shows and movies, such as CSI and XXX, are becoming more and more popular. I think it's a positive trend, and it won't be long before contestants on Survivor are in the lab racing against the clock to develop an antidote before the poison reaches their brains.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Interesting != Insightful
Interesting != Informative
Informative != Insightful
How about "(Interesting) (Informative) (Insightful) are disjoint sets"?