Web Directions

XHTML2 is dead, long live HTML5

• In: Blog
• By:John
• July 3, 2009
• Leave a response

The W3 has announced today that the XHTML 2 work­ing group will not be rechar­tered after its cur­rent char­ter expires at the end of 2009.

In many respects, this is not unex­pected, and given the direc­tion HTML5, and browsers have been tak­ing, XHTML2 was look­ing like an increas­ingly the­o­ret­i­cal, how­ever worth­while enterprise.

One of the lessons the web con­tin­ues to teach us is that it val­ues prag­matic devel­op­ment over the­o­ret­i­cal perfection.

XHTML itself is not dead on the web — HTML5 has an XHTML ver­sion, which when served as application/​xml or application/xml+xhtml must be treated by parsers as XML.

And parts of XHTML2, like section and the sec­tion­ing model are also part of HTML5.

Personally, I much pre­fer the mod­u­lar nature of the XHTML2 spec­i­fi­ca­tion (and CSS3 as well), to the mono­lithic HTML5 spec­i­fi­ca­tion, which I’ve recently spent a con­sid­er­able amount of time dis­sect­ing for an upcom­ing book. Having read in detail many spec­i­fi­ca­tions, I must say I find the qual­ity of the cur­rent HTML5 spec­i­fi­ca­tion lack­ing in com­par­i­son with other W3 spec­i­fi­ca­tions. Yes, it’s still in draft, but many sec­tions are in last call for com­ments stage, and really need con­sid­er­able work. A mod­u­lar approach to devel­op­ing the spec (which we are in effect see­ing to an extent with the spin­ning out of some parts of what was ini­tially part of HTML5) I think would def­i­nitely ben­e­fit the effort.

There’s a lively con­ver­sa­tion over at zeld​man​.com with excel­lent input, par­tic­u­larly from Tantek Çelik, who has been involved with the devel­op­ment of CSS and HTML for many years.

4 responses to “XHTML2 is dead, long live HTML5”:

1. • By:Lachlan Hunt
   • July 3rd, 2009
   

   Hi John,
   It would be use­ful if you could elab­o­rate on which sec­tions in HTML5 that you feel are in need of work so that we can get the issues resolved.

2. • By:john Allsopp
   • July 4th, 2009
   

   Hi Lachlan,

   I’m hard at work on a con­struc­tive cri­tique that I’ll pub­lish soon.

   My con­cerns about the seman­tic model and lack of any even sim­ple exten­si­bil­ity are out­lined in detail here

   http://​www​.alistapart​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​s​e​m​a​n​t​i​c​s​i​n​h​t​m​l5/

   Now, despite what my twit­ter stream may indicate

   https://​twit​ter​.com/​j​o​h​n​a​l​l​s​opp

   I am far from against HTML5.

   I’ll pub­lish more soon

   thanks

   j

3. • By:Simon Guerin – Designer et Développeur CSS : Blog HTML5, CSS3, Design Web, Inspiration - HTML 5 vs XHTML vs XHTML2 vs XHTML5
   • September 18th, 2009

   […] Voir XHTML2 is DEAD — http://​www​.web​di​rec​tions​.org/​b​l​o​g​/​x​h​t​m​l​2​-​i​s​-​d​e​a​d​-​l​o​n​g​-​l​i​v​e​-​h​t​m​l5/ […]

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