Key Difference – HTML vs XHTML
There are various technologies used for web development. Every organization maintains several websites to provide information to the customer and to understand the market trends. One common language type for web development is markup languages. It is a language that is specifically designed to make web pages. Markup languages are combined with Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and JavaScript to make the web pages more presentable and dynamic. The main task of the markup language is to build the structure required for the web page. HTML and XHTML are two markup languages. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) is a part of the family XML markup languages that mirror the versions of HTML. Standard Generalize Markup Language (SGML) is a standard for defining markup languages. HTML is one main application of SGML. The key difference between HTML and XHML is that, HTML is based on SGML while XHTML is based on XML.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is HTML
3. What is XHTML
4. Similarities Between HTML and XHTML
5. Side by Side Comparison – HTML vs XHTML in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is HTML?
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It was the based language of the web. The main objective of HTML is to create the structure of the web page. It is based on SGML. There are different versions of HTML such as HTML 1, 2, etc. The latest version is HTML5. It is majorly used to develop user interfaces are for front-end development. It has many added features. The SVG is used for graphical applications. The Geolocation is used for sharing the location. It also contains native audio and video support.
The HTML language consists of tags. There are separated tags for each task. Each tag is placed between curly braces, and most tags have their corresponding ending tag. The HTML file starts with the Document type declaration. It specifies the HTML version. If the starting tag is <html>, then the closing tag is </html>. There are two sections in the HTML document. The <head> section provides the details of the document such as title etc. All the tags that build the structure of the web page is inside the <body> section. The paragraphs, headings, tables, lists etc. are in that section.
Most of the static web pages are based on HTML. When HTML is integrated with CSS, the web page becomes more presentable with background colours, images etc. It is also important to make the web page dynamic. A new page should open when a button is clicked. After entering the details in the form, the form validation should be performed. Those are some examples of dynamic behaviour in a web page. JavaScript can be used to make the web page interactive. Generally, HTML, CSS and JavaScript work together in web development.
What is XHTML?
There are many versions of HTML. The HTML 4 requires more computing power to take average HTML page and render it in a coherent and consistent manner. Therefore, the XHTML was introduced. XHTML stands for Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language. XHTML is not extensible. It is based on XML. The XML is similar to HTML, but it is designed to describe data. Unlike the HTML tags, the XML tags are not predefined. Therefore, the programmer can write the tags according to the application.
The main objective of developing XHTML was to develop to help the programmer to transfer from HTML to XML. XHTML is a descriptive markup language which works similar to HTML while handling data organization well. The first document type in the XHTML family is XHTML 1.0. XHTML is more similar to HTML 4.01. It sticker than HTML. It provides more precise standards and specifications for the website to understand data and to transmit them.
All the XHTML documents should start with the documents declaration at the top. All the attributes and the tag names should be in simple letters. It is necessary to nest all the tags properly. The attribute values are included inside quotes. Those are few facts to consider when writing XHTML files.
Overall, the XHTML is useful to make the web pages more likely to be compatible with present and future web browsers and to render accurately. XHTML makes easier to maintain and format for a long period of time. Even though the XHTML provides more precise standards to understand the data; one drawback is that it is harder to debug.
What is the Similarity Between HTML and XHTML?
- Both are markup languages designed for web development.
What is the Difference Between HTML and XHTML?
HTML vs XHTML |
|
| Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. | Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) is a part of the family XML markup languages that mirrors the versions of HTML. |
| Based on | |
| HTML is based on SGML. | XHTML is based on XML. |
| Standards and Specifications | |
| HTML does not provide standards and specifications such as XHTML. | XHML provides more precise standards and specifications on data. |
| Case Sensitivity | |
| HTML is not case sensitive. The attributes and tags can either be lowercase or uppercase. | XHTML is case sensitive. The attributes and tags should be in lowercase. |
| Debugging | |
| HTML is easier to debug. | XHTML is harder to debug. |
| Format | |
| HTML is not well formatted like XHTML. | XHTML is well formatted and cleaner than HTML. |
Summary – HTML vs XHTML
HTML and XHTML are two markup languages. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) is a part of the family XML markup languages that mirrors the versions of HTML. The key difference between HTML and XHML is that, HTML is based on SGML while XHTML is based on XML.
Reference:
1.Bekkevold, Rasin. “The Difference between HTML, XHTML & HTML5 for Beginners.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 13 July 2016. Available here
2.“XHTML Tutorial.” XHTML Tutorial – Understanding Difference Between HTML and XHTML. Available here
3.“XHTML Introduction.”, Tutorials Point, 8 Jan. 2018. Available here
4.“HTML Overview.”, Tutorials Point, 8 Jan. 2018. Available here
Image Courtesy:
1.’154434’by OpenClipart-Vectors (Public Domain) via pixabay
2.’XHTML text representation’By Ross MacPhee – Own work, (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia