On 28/10/05, Gunlaug Sørtun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Since choice of doctype may actually affect how we apply CSS, would you > be kind enough to go a little more in depth here?
Nutshell version: (a) XHTML as text/html depends on browsers implementing HTML incorrectly (the prime example being what <br />, <img /> etc mean in HTML as opposed to XHTML) (b) XHTML as text/html throws away every advantage that XHTML has over HTML (c) The rules for CSS are somewhat different for HTML then XHTML (e.g. things which were applied to <body> suddenly need to be applied to <html>) so an XHTML document which SHOULD be served as application/xhtml+xml and MAY be served as text/html can have dramatic differences in the rendering if that is changed (perhaps another author takes over maintainership, or it gets moved to another server, or whatever) (d) There is a lack of machine testing available to check for conformance to Appendix C (conformance to which is required before the "MAY be served as text/html" rule applies). (e) XHTML as application/xhtml+xml enjoys very little in the way of browser support. > A strong advice against the use of XHTML may make someone think there's > actually something wrong with a page like this: > <http://www.w3.org/> I'm not privy to the reasons behind the W3C's choice of markup language. It could range from ignorance of the person authoring the pages, simple not caring about the problems, or the politics of needing to show support for the latest and "greatest". Even the example of the W3C homepage is interesting as the source starts with an XML processing instruction, despite http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_1 saying it is a bad idea and despite http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-media-types/xhtml-media-types.html#text-html saying that Appendix C SHOULD be followed if you are going to serve XHTML as text/html. It just goes to show how easy it is to implement XHTML badly. -- David Dorward <http://dorward.me.uk><http://blog.dorward.me.uk> ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
