XHTML 1.0 returned to HTML WG

Thu Nov 4 04:47:21 GMT 1999

> >>Would it not save everyone a lot of anguish if XHTML 1.0 were just HTML
> >> 4.01 recast as XML 1.0, in other words without mentioning namespaces *at all*,
> >> and saving the namespace stuff for future versions (if it's proven to be viable)?
> 
> Yes yes yes!!
> 
> That would get XML into the minds of HTML coders and would start a process
> for other applications of XML to take off.

Okay, maybe I'm a little brighter than the HTML coders you're thinking of, but I 
spawned an XHTML version of my site with fairly little trouble.  In fact, the hardest part 
was (a) getting a list of empty elements (I'd somehow overlooked INPUT and META), 
(b) finding those elements in my files so I could convert <tag> to <tag /> as appropriate, 
(c) converting all my links so they'll switch from page.html to page.xml as necessary, and 
(d) tracking down all those pesky uppercase tags and (worst of all) unquoted attribute 
values.  A good multi-file search&replace utility took care of step B, I'd anticipated most 
of step C months ago and already made the adjustments, and testing pages with IE5 took 
care of most of step D.  Yeah, I may have some pages out there with an uppercase 
element or two - but the vast majority of the conversion is done, and it validates cleanly.

With all those concerns to worry about...well, frankly, adding a namespace attribute to 
my <html> tag was nothing.  The defined namespaces precisely parallel the existing 
HTML 4 DTDs, which I was already using; adding them in was cake.  I didn't look over 
the XHTML spec and panic because I didn't know what a namespace was or what that 
attribute meant; it just wasn't that big a deal.  HTML didn't require it; XHTML did - 
fine.  Right along with <br /> instead of <br>.  It's a syntax adjustment; I adjusted.

 Rev. Robert L. Hood  | http://rev-bob.gotc.com/
  Get Off The Cross!  | http://www.gotc.com/

Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com

*---------------------------------------------------------*
       E-Mail Delivery By VEI Internet Mail Services
   http://www.veiinternet.com - $14.95 Unlimited Internet

       Visit The New VEI Stores Open For Christmas:
       VEI DVD Store - http://vei.vstoredvds.com/
       VEI Book Store - http://veibooks.vstorebooks.com/
*---------------------------------------------------------*

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
unsubscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa at ic.ac.uk)