News
W3C Issues XHTML 1.0 as Recommendation
- By Scott Bekker
- January 27, 2000
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released the XHMTL 1.0 specification as a W3C recommendation. XHTML 1.0 is the publishing language that will bridge the gap between HTML and the emerging Web standard XML.
XHMTL uses HTML 4.0, the current implementation of HTML, and rewrites it as an XML application. XHTML 1.0 allows authors to create Web documents that work with current HTML browsers but may also be processed with XML-enabled software. Additionally, XML documents are able to make the transition from traditional desktop-based browsers to Web-enabled devices such as wireless phones and palm computing devices.
XHMTL allows authors to use elements of HTML 4.0 and combine them with elements from other XML languages, including Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), MathML, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Resource Description Framework (RDF).
XML documents can already be transformed using Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) and rendered using independent style sheets such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). XHTML 1.1, an upcoming version of the language, will include a protocol which will allow a user to specify both user preferences and device capabilities.
The XHTML 1.0 recommendation was written by members of the HTML working group, which includes industry leaders such as Ask Jeeves (www.aj.com), CNET (www.cnet.com), Gateway (www.gateway.com), IBM (www.ibm.com), and Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com). Additionally, many W3C (www.w3c.org) members have announced XHTML 1.0 support in current products and committed to implementations in future products. -- Isaac Slepner
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.