views:

75

answers:

4

I'm not clear on the status of XHTML - v1.0 and v1.1. Can someone explain which is preferred at this point, and why?

The specs from w3c say that XHTML 1.1 predates* XHTML 1.0, which is exactly counter-intuitive, to me.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/ - W3C Recommendation 31 May 2001

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ - W3C Recommentation, updated 1 August 2002

Also, I noted earlier today that the latest version of htmltidy emits XHTML 1.0, when I request xhtml. Hmmm....Even though the XHTML 1.1 spec is 9 years old, it's still not supported by mainstream tools. That suggests that XHTML 1.1 is either completely unnecessary or spurious.


Which one should I use if I am authoring pages today? What if I am building tools - should I bother to support both? Or do I need only one?

Thanks.

A: 

Not really my forte, but maybe this article will shed some light.
Also according to wikipedia and w3 there is no question of predating:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ - W3C Recommentation, 26 January 2000, revised 1 August 2002

Unreason
A: 

As far as I know, XHTML 1.1 was the first fully fledged XML based version of the language. This means that XHTML 1.1 should be served with the application/xhtml+xml mime type.

XHTML 1.0 was added as an intermediate between the fully fledged XML language (XHTML 1.1) and HTML 4 (Mime type text/html).

At least that's my understanding upto this point.

Jamie Dixon
XHTML 1.0 is full fledged too. The text/html RFC says you can serve "a profile of it" as text/html though. Various notes from the working group say you can served XHTML 1.1 as text/html, but this isn't supported by the spec. The whole thing is a big mess.
David Dorward
@Dorward, +1, especially the "big mess" part. Standards are great, aren't they? So many to choose from!
Cheeso
+1  A: 

If you open the XHTML 1.0 document and click on the diff-marked version you see that the differences are mostly/only (did not check thorough) formatting and grammar changes.

The original of this document is older than the XHTML 1.1 document, so I would think they just updated the document to comply with a newer format.

Veger
+1  A: 

Besides the original XHTML 1.0 documentation is older than 1.1 as answered by others,-

The XHTML 1.1 page you've linked to just describe the structure. The "modules", which actually defines the elements, are listed in http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/ and the last update is in 2008.

KennyTM
That's helpful, thanks.
Cheeso