Why Was xhtml Created?

February 22, 2011 , Hari M , Leave a comment

Why?

Why Was xhtml Created?

XHTML was started to remove the old syntax used in HTML which is dependent on standard generalized markup language (SGML). SGML was not easy for the computers to read and manipulate automatically. Hence, a new language similar to HTML and advanced than that was proposed called XML. With the use of XML-HTML format that was added to generate a new language called XHTML, the computers could read and manipulate XHTML with accuracy.

XHTML was developed to provide added features to HTML and enhance the compatibility of XHTML with other data formats. HTML4 version is considered as an application of SGML. SGML specifications were crude and complex for the web browsers and HTML4 recommendations. XML which was established for use in 1998 was having the data format similar to that of HTML4. The XML format will make the HTML to become compatible with common XML tools. XML tools aid the servers in transferring the content into the small devices like mobile phones. The features in XML like scalable vector graphics and Math ML along with namespaces provide extension to XHTML. The new language that was formed by dividing HTML into components which can be reused (XHTML modularization). The new language XHTML was created by cleaning the dirty or unnecessary parts of the language.

Due to browser incompatibilities with the tags in the HTML language, presentation of the data was highly important than the structure and compatibility of the language. So, some pages were not properly accessed by the browser or computer setup. Because of many presentation tags to be essential for making the page attractive, HTML was very cumbersome. To rectify this inconvenience CSS was introduced to help HTML. This extensibility of HTML and XML was provided through XHTML created by W3C. To prepare the document of your interest, the tags and attributes of your choice can accompany the rules of XML to generate a new language called as XHTML. XHTML is extensible hyper text markup language. It is a subset to XML or application of XML.