EDUCBA

Home Software Development Software Development Tutorials Top Differences Tutorial HTML vs XML

HTML vs XML

By Priya PedamkarPriya Pedamkar

HTML vs XML

Differences Between HTML vs XML

Computers use languages to communicate just like people do. The way a computer communicates with the internet is through a computer language which is the content of this HTML vs XML article. As usual, it’s better to clear some terminology before we proceed into details of the HTML vs XML article.

Terms

Start Your Free Software Development Course

Web development, programming languages, Software testing & others

  1. HYPER-TEXT is a process of linking objects to each other so that when one object is clicked, the linked object can be viewed or used accordingly (means as per the action is taken).
  2. MARKUP literally means notations or symbols that are used to correct in making up text and indicate how the texts should be displayed. Some common notations or symbols used are (<,>, ^, /,?). Mark-ups refer to the sequences of characters or other symbols that can be inserted at certain places in a text file to indicate how a file should look when it is printed or displayed.
  3. EXTENSIBLE means something capable of being stretched out or extended. In information technology, extensible refers to a program or programming language that is designed so that its users and developers can expand or add to its capabilities.

Head to Head Comparison Between HTML and XML (Infographics)

Below is the Top 11 difference between HTML and  XML:

HTML vs XML Infographics

Key Differences Between HTML and XML

Below are the lists of points, describe the key differences between HTML and XML:

Before we go ahead with the difference between HTML and XML, one should know there are some similarities between them. First of all, both HTML vs XML are languages and are used for the web. Both XML vs HTML  are markup languages. Tags are the building blogs for both XML vs HTML. The last interesting similarities both share is they both are originated from SGML (Standardized Markup Language)

Let’s see a basic code sample under both HTML and XML. This will give a clear understanding of the elements, structure, and tags elements used in it.

HTML

<html> ————————-this is the opening tag

<head>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>———————–this is the closing tag(notice that for each closed tags a slash symbol is used which is compulsory while closing the tags in a proper way). There is no case sensitive in the coding part.

XML 

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UFT-8”?>

<contact-information>

<name> EDUCBA <//name>

<designation> Organization </designation>

<address> Mumbai </address>

<contact> 987654321 </contact>

</contact-information>

Note: Information in RED is Mark-up, and information in black is ordinary text.

  1. XML and XHTML have an infinite number of possible elements, whereas HTML follows a strict set of elements that are predefined.
  2. One more interesting relationship between these two shares. One can be a subset of others, whereas others can’t be a superset of first. All HTML can be XML, but the reverse does not hold value unless it uses HTML elements and served as XHTML.
  3. An XML element does not convey meanings, and its parsers won’t act on those elements, whereas on the other hand, HTML elements by their use convey meaning or browser instruction.
  4. XML attributes have to be quoted and can’t be value-less. In certain conditions, HTML attributes need quotes and can omit redundant values unless it’s XHTML, in which case it assumes XML attribute rules.

HTML and XML Comparison Table

Following is the comparison table between HTML and XML.

Basis of Comparison  HTML XML
Filename Extension .html, .htm .xml

 
Development W3C and WHATWG W3C(Worldwide Web Consortium)
Initial and Current Release Initial release in 1993. The latest release (14th Dec 2017). No such details are available. Has a stable release.
Layout HTML is not case sensitive. A user can use fonts according to his wish This is not true for XML as it follows a Case sensitive format of coding.
Objective HTML purely used to display the data and focuses on how data looks. XML is a software and hardware independent tool used to transport and store data. It mainly focuses on what the data is.
Category HTML is a markup language in itself. XML provides a framework so that the markup languages can be defined.
 

Layer

  

HTML is a presentation language

  

XML is neither a presentation nor a programming language
Tags Flexibility In HTML, there are pre-defined tags. These cannot be overwritten or changed by users. In the case of XML, the users can define their tags as per their convenience and usage. This gives flexibility to its user.
Script In HTML, normally, there are open and closed tags. This is not a rule to follow. One can even work without having a close tag. In XML, it is mandatory to have closing tags.
Tools Notepad, Notepad++ are some of the common free tools XML editors (generally used)
Whitespaces HTML does not preserve whitespaces. Whitespaces mean if one character or white space is there, or wide gaps are present between the sentences, HTML will then take it as a single character blank space. XML preserves the whitespace.

Conclusion

We have seen how these technologies are the building blocks for web development. The article so far has covered terms related to HTML and XML – comparing the usefulness and how one stands on others in terms of usage. We have also seen their proper syntax and how tagging differs between them. HTML vs XML are actually large topics, but I must say that the readers who have this far will definitely learn the technicalities as per requirement. The best part about these web development techniques is the availability of tools, which are easy to get and practice.

Both of these are accepted worldwide for web development and are W3C accepted. Immense possibilities are there for HTML when it comes to formatting text, adding graphics, creating a link, input forms, frames, and tables. The same goes with XML with its storage and transportation capabilities. The browsers then use these to display the information to people all across the globe.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to the top differences between HTML vs XML. We also discuss the HTML vs XML head to head comparisons, key differences, infographics, and a comparison table. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. HTML vs CSS
  2. HTML vs HTM
  3. HTML vs XHTML
  4. HTML vs WordPress