The Future is XHTML 2.0

An anonymous reader writes "As with its past, the future of HTML will be varied, some might say messy, but I believe XHTML 2.0 will ultimately receive widespread acceptance and adoption. A big move in this direction will be in Embedded devices such as phones and digital TVs, which will have no need to support the Web's legacy of messy HTML, and are free to take unburdened advantage of XHTML 2.0. This Developer Works article examines the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in creating the next-generation version of their XHTML specification, and also their response to the demand for 'rich client" behavior exemplified by Ajax applications.'

Comments

XHTML? Not for IE

[MagicM]

As noted on the IE blog, IE 7 won't support the "application/xml+xhtml" MIME type. That means that all of your XHTML 2.0 documents will still need to be sent as "text/html", and will thus be parsed as HTML. Yay, progress!

Sounds like, when they say "future", they mean "fuuuuuuuuuuture".

The two futures of HTML

[Anonymous Coward]

Just wanted to point this out:

XHTML2 -- with navigation lists, links on any element, sections and headings -- is optimized for web documents.

HTML5, officially Web Applications 1.0 -- with canvas, a drag and drop API, and XMLHTTPRequest standardization -- is optimized for web applications.

CSS3 is going to be extremely cool.

Re:Time for an Internet Reboot

[VGPowerlord]

Bad examples, for your point. Stage Coaches, horse drawn carriages, and Model T's can operate on current roads.

That's funny, because I'm pretty sure that changing to XHTML 2.0 would still use the same Internet connection I already have, as well as the same protocol (HTTP 1.1). XHTML 2.0 has a different mime-type, so you can tell whether XHTML or HTML is being used.

Before you say it, yes, XHTML 1.x does work with text/html, but you'll also notice that XHTML 1.x has not removed support for any tags, unlike XHTML 2.x.

To be exact, XHTML 2.0 does away with the following tags:

• br
• hr
• h1-h7
• img (all elements will now support src=)
• form, input, textarea
• ins, del
• script
• frame functions - Has been relegated to XFrames

It adds

• nl - Navigation List
• l - A container tag that replaces br.
• section - For dividing a document into sections, works with h.
• h - context-aware header tag, replaces h1-h7.
• separator - hr renamed. It still isn't a container tag.
• script has been replaced by handler, which uses XML Events instead of classic HTML listener events.
• XForms - Replaces HTML forms
• src attribute - Any element can now have an image replace it. No more futzing around with img alt=
• href attribute - Any element can now have a linking attribute. a has been retained in the language, even though its functionality is now gone.
• role attribute - You can now mark the purpose of particular elements.