Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

The W3C has released the sixth (that’s right, sixth) draft of XHTML 2.0. Despite its draft status, the release re-ignited the ongoing HTML vs. XHTML debate.

Here’s a simple little fact: You don’t have to use XHTML if you don’t want to! The point isn’t that XHTML is wonderful and HTML isn’t. In fact, there’s not a lot one can do with XHTML that one can’t do with HTML if the markup is being used for structural purposes.

So pick a markup language and forget the fighting, which is just a waste of your precious time. You think XHTML isn’t for you? Fine! No one’s saying you have to use it. The W3C recommends markup languages, it doesn’t dictate their use. It’s not like the W3C is gonna come and get you and toss you into markup prison. It’s not like you’ll get stung by a WaSP or anything, especially if you’re paying attention to better practices and getting as much presentation out of your documents as your situation allows.

The point is to author documents that are well-structured, folks, and that can be done in HTML 4.01 just as efficiently as it can in XHTML 1.0. And leave the drafts to draft status, okay? There’s a reason they’re called drafts, after all.

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