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XHTML vs HTML5

By Priya PedamkarPriya Pedamkar

XHTML vs HTML5

Differences Between XHTML vs HTML5

XHTML is an abbreviation for eXtensible Markup Language, which was formed from the traditional HTML and XML programming languages that can be used for developing web based applications. HTML5 is the latest version of HTML, which allows any format of data and contents to be incorporated in the programs, including Video and/ or Audio contents. XHTML allows only two types of attributes, such as Core attributes and language attributes. Whereas HTML5 allows five types of attributes, such as Align, Hidden, Itemprop, Tabindex and Data-XXXX. In this article, we will see the difference between XHTML vs HTML5.

Head to Head Comparison Between XHTML vs HTML5

Below is the Top 5 Comparison between XHTML vs HTML5XHTML vs HTML5 Infographics

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Key Differences Between XHTML vs HTML5

Below are the lists of points; describe the Key Difference between XHTML and HTML5.

  • XHTML is a combination of HTML and XML, whereas HTML5 is a version of HTML.
  • XHTML has its own parsing requirements, while HTML does not have any specific requirements and uses its own.
  • In XHTML, all tags, if they are opened, then they should be closed. HTML5 is less strict in this regard.
  • HTML5 has a simpler charset and does not need to add type attributes and style elements.
  • XHTML has restrictions in regards to tags, and they can be nested inside each other. HTML has no such restrictions.

XHTML vs HTML5 Comparison Table

Below are the lists of points; describe the Comparison Between XHTML vs HTML5.

Basis of Comparison between XHTML vs HTML5 XHTML HTML5
Basic Difference and history XHTML is an abbreviation for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. It was developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to assist developers in transit from HTML and XML. Developers can easily understand XML through this language and be future compatible. HTML5 stands to be the most advanced version of HTML5. It is a collaboration between the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). This new version provides features like video playback, drag and drops and third-party browser plugins like Google Gears, Adobe Flash, etc.
Features and Benefits XHTML is a combination of HTML and XML. It defines a standard for web pages being used. All XHTML can represent these pages enabled browsers. XHTML pages provide easy maintenance, and they can be easily edited and formatted. It gives a more consistent and well-structured format that can be easily parsed and processed by all web browsers. The XHTML documents can use applications like scripts and applets, which depend on the HTML document object model or XML document object model. The documents can be easily viewed, edited and validated using an XML tool. HTML5 provides many new elements and attributes which assist in building modern websites. The main features supported by HTML5 are:

1)Drag and Drop: The user can easily drag and drop elements from one location to another on the same webpage.

2)Geolocation: Users can easily share their location on various web applications.

3)Server-Sent Events (SSE): Using this facility, HTML5 lets events to flow to the web browser from the web server. These events are called Server sent events.

4)New elements: Many elements like <header>, <footer> and <section> have been added.

5)Microdata: This facility enables a user to create their own vocabularies beyond HTML5 and extend the web pages with the custom semantics.
Syntax XHTML is quite similar to HTML. While writing code for HTML, the following points should be kept in mind:

  • Nest all tags properly.
  • All XHTML tags and attributes should be in lower case.
  • All XHTML documents should start with a DOCTYPE declaration.
  • The user must replace a name attribute with an id attribute.
  • Disapprove the language attribute of the script tag.

Example of using DOCTYPE

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

All attributes should be quoted, and you must explicitly state the attribute and its value.

 HTML5 follows different rules from XHTML. XHTML requires lower case tag names, quoting attributes, and all empty elements should be closed.

HTML5, on the other hand, provides:

  • Uppercase tag names
  • Attribute values are optional
  • Closure of empty elements is optional
  • Quotes are optional for attributes.

Doctype for was longer in previous versions of HTML as it is based on SGML, and hence it requires reference to DTD.

It also provides different tags like:

1) <script>: It is used to add a type attribute with value as text/javascript

<script type = "text/javascript" src"scriptdoc.js"></script>

2) <link>:  HTML5 removes extra information that was provided in previous HTML versions, and now this tag can be used as:

<link rel =”stylesheet” href=”stylefile.css”>

HTML5 document tags

  • Figure- This tag enables to combine a caption with some embedded content together
  • Nav- This tag helps in getting a section of the document intended for navigation.
  • Article- This tag gets you content that is related to the rest of the page.
Attributes XHTML has a few attributes associated with it. They are as below:

1)Core attributes- These include class, id, style, and title. It has values as class_rule, id_name, style_definition and tooltip_text respectively.

2)Language attributes- This attribute indicates the language being used using ISO standard language abbreviations like fr as French en as English.

Along with these, it has Microsoft Proprietary attributes. These include accesskey, language, tabindex, hidefocus, etc.

 Attributes in HTML5 can be used in start tags and not in end tags. It is case insensitive and can be used in wither uppercase, lowercase or mixed case. It has many attributes. To list a few, they are as below:

1)Align: Used to align tags to the right, left or center.

2)Hidden: It specifies if the element should be hidden or not.

3)Itemprop: It is used to group items.

4)Tabindex: It specifies the tab order of any element

5)Data-XXXX: It helps to customize attributes, and the author can define their own attributes.
Events Events are specified to perform after some activity. XHTML provides <body> and <frameset> elements. These attributes can be used to trigger any Javascript. It also has <form> level events which trigger when element changes, a form is submitted, etc. In addition to this, it supports keyboard events as well. HTML5 supports event handlers in javascript, and the user can specify those as a value of the event tag attribute. It also supports events like document load, window focus, etc.

Conclusion – XHTML vs HTML5

Hence both XHTML vs HTML5 languages are markup languages and have their own capabilities, which make building web applications easier. They provide structure and organization to all applications but need to overcome challenges about mobile demands and responsive designing.

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