[thelist] "Sending XHTML as text/html Considered Harmful"

[Simon Willison]

Here's a tough one for standards enthusiasts:

http://www.hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml

Ian Hickson makes the case for using HTML 4.01 in preference to XHTML,
because XHTML should be sent with a text/xml content-type header (which
causes most browsers, including IE, to fail to display it). The text/xml
content-type header is essential as without it browsers will render
not-well-formed XHTML documents, which inevitably results in XHTML document
authors polluting the web with so-called XHTML documents that are actually
invalid. Then when the first "real" XML user-agents come along they will be
unable to render most of the so-called XHTML documents they encounter.

The document advocates staying with HTML until "such time as the majority
of installed user agents correctly support XHTML when delivered with an XML
content type". We all know how long it takes some people/organisations to
upgrade, and seeing as Internet Explorer 6  doesn't get this right how long
that will take is anyone's guess.

Cheers,

Simon

--
Web Developer, www.incutio.com
Weblog: http://www.bath.ac.uk/~cs1spw/blog/