Xhtml Strict

G

Ganesh

I want to start designing a website using XHTML strict.

How should I start? I want to save time and get a good design as well.

Ganesh
 
P

patrick j

I want to start designing a website using XHTML strict.

How should I start? I want to save time and get a good design as well.
Click to expand...

Hi

I returned to doing web-sites in the last few months having not done
any at all for about five years.

Initially I thought that XHTML was "the way to go" so I embarked upon
doing everything with XHTML.

However there are problems with XHTML, one of which I've encountered
and there are lots of people in this forum who will describe in much
more detail why XHTML may not be a good idea.

The problem I've encountered is that the XHTML declaration at the very
top:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

seems to put IE 6 into "quirks mode". It might very well do this with
other browsers as well I've only observed this with IE 6.

The problem (I guess) is that the browser doesn't understand this very
first statement and then says to itself "I must be dealing with a jolly
bad HTML site here" and goes into a mode of operation which is
anticipating problems.

The reality seems to be that the browser's behaviour becomes
unpredictable in some situations.

So I have started doing everything in HTML 4.01.

I think that it would be easy to change the XHTML in the future if I
wanted to, if it did indeed become "the next big thing" because in fact
all I think I need to do is change the headers at the top and do a
find/replace on the ends some of the tags and that kind of thing.
However XHTML demands that all tags are closed, it is very fussy in
that respect, so I think that for me the thing I'm doing is just making
sure all my tags in HTML 4.01 are closed and by this simple measure
than I know that conversion to XHTML (if I wished) would be fairly
simple.

The most exciting thing about the writing HTML today is CSS. This is
the massive change which has taken place in the period I have spent
away from HTML. I feel that concentrating on CSS is very much the "way
to go". If you are not familiar with CSS then you will find it great
fun to explore :)
 
C

Chaddy2222

patrick said:
Hi

I returned to doing web-sites in the last few months having not done
any at all for about five years.

Initially I thought that XHTML was "the way to go" so I embarked upon
doing everything with XHTML.

However there are problems with XHTML, one of which I've encountered
and there are lots of people in this forum who will describe in much
more detail why XHTML may not be a good idea.

The problem I've encountered is that the XHTML declaration at the very
top:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

seems to put IE 6 into "quirks mode". It might very well do this with
other browsers as well I've only observed this with IE 6.

The problem (I guess) is that the browser doesn't understand this very
first statement and then says to itself "I must be dealing with a jolly
bad HTML site here" and goes into a mode of operation which is
anticipating problems.

The reality seems to be that the browser's behaviour becomes
unpredictable in some situations.

So I have started doing everything in HTML 4.01.

I think that it would be easy to change the XHTML in the future if I
wanted to, if it did indeed become "the next big thing" because in fact
all I think I need to do is change the headers at the top and do a
find/replace on the ends some of the tags and that kind of thing.
However XHTML demands that all tags are closed, it is very fussy in
that respect, so I think that for me the thing I'm doing is just making
sure all my tags in HTML 4.01 are closed and by this simple measure
than I know that conversion to XHTML (if I wished) would be fairly
simple.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is why I think XHTML is good to use.
Also, it is not hard to get it to work in IE, you just need to serve it
incorrectly as text/html.
I personally don't mind throwing IE in to quirks mode eather, as the
majority of standards compliant browsers do serve XHTML 1.0 strict
served as text/html in standards compliant mode.
However, you can only do this with 1.0, it's not recomended to serve
1.1 as text/html, and frankly, I don't see a need to do that anyway.
The most exciting thing about the writing HTML today is CSS. This is
the massive change which has taken place in the period I have spent
away from HTML. I feel that concentrating on CSS is very much the "way
to go". If you are not familiar with CSS then you will find it great
fun to explore :)
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree totally with that.
 
G

Ganesh

Rik said:
Well, there ARE good uses of XHTML strict, it's sadly not yet widely
supported. At the moment, it's not really a big pay off to code correct
XHTML. For controllable intranets it might be usefull, and I usually serve
XHTML to UA's that claim application/xhtml+xml support in their headers,
but indeed HTML 4.01 Strict to the rest.
Click to expand...
Forewarned is ForeArmed...

I want to start designing a website using HTML 4.01 strict.

How should I start? I want to save time and get a good design as well.

Ganesh
 
P

patrick j

I want to start designing a website using HTML 4.01 strict.
Click to expand...

A book might be of interest.

I think a good one for people that haven't done any HTML/CSS before is:
"Head First - HTML with CSS & XHTML"

by Elisabeth Freeman & Eric Freeman

ISBN is 059610197X
 
D

dorayme

"Ganesh said:
Forewarned is ForeArmed...

I want to start designing a website using HTML 4.01 strict.
Click to expand...

How should I start? I want to save time and get a good design as well.
Click to expand...

Following Chaddy is not a bad idea - "Grab a template from
http://www.oswd.org/" - just convert the doc type and if you run
into problems ask here...

As to why they use xhtml doctype, the answer is that the authors
have not had the benefit of being here or reading Spartanicus
(God) or AD or Korpela (a sort of god but a plain clothes one,
higher than the highest uniformed ones)
 
G

Ganesh

dorayme said:
Following Chaddy is not a bad idea - "Grab a template from
http://www.oswd.org/" - just convert the doc type and if you run
into problems ask here...
Click to expand...

I've been already doing that for a long time. I'd like to start with a
new design from the scratch.

I personally thought of the following steps.

1.) Create a simple HTML page with all the HTML elements.
2.) Write a css file with all the HTML elements present in it.

So, is this a good idea?

Ganesh
 
D

dorayme

"Ganesh said:
I've been already doing that for a long time. I'd like to start with a
new design from the scratch.

I personally thought of the following steps.

1.) Create a simple HTML page with all the HTML elements.
2.) Write a css file with all the HTML elements present in it.

So, is this a good idea?
Click to expand...

It is an excellent idea (and one of its times, very modern) to at
least write an html page first. Don't use all the elements as
this will create a big headache for you. There are too many and
you should just use the ones you need to get the content of what
you want to put before the user.

For example, if all you want to say is a couple of things about
one main thing, an <h1>and a couple of <p>s should do you. If you
want to say a couple of things about a couple of things to do
with some one main thing, an <h1> and a couple of <h2>s and about
4 <p>s might suit.

As for what it will look like, yes, then write out a css sheet
and address the features you have in the html. For example, you
might want most people to see the main heading in the middle
somewhere, the subheadings somewhere left and the paragraphs with
some sort of font you fancy... all for the css.
 
P

patrick j

I personally thought of the following steps.

1.) Create a simple HTML page with all the HTML elements.
2.) Write a css file with all the HTML elements present in it.

So, is this a good idea?
Click to expand...

Very soon you will find out how easy it is. Remember not to tell
anyone.
 

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