W3C XHTML Activities

HTML is the lingua franca for publishing hypertext on the World Wide Web.

XHTML is the latest version of HTML.

XHTML Tutorial

To see how this Web Site was converted to XHTML, read our XHTML tutorial.

XHTML Versions

XHTML 1.0

XHTML 1.0 was released as a W3C Recommendation 20. January 2000. 

XHTML 1.0 Second Edition

XHTML 1.0 Second Edition was released as a W3C Recommendation 1. August 2002. It is not a new version, but an update and a "bug fix".

About XHTML 1.0

XHTML 1.0 was the first major change to HTML since 1997, and a very important step on the way to create a standard that will provide richer web pages on a wider range of user agents (browsers), like desktop PCs, mobile (wireless) devices, and cell phones.

XHTML is an XML application with a clean migration path from HTML 4.01. W3C's first step was to reformulate HTML 4.01 into XML, resulting in XHTML 1.0. XHTML 1.0 relies on HTML 4.01 for the meanings of HTML tags.

The next step includes modularization of XHTML into smaller element collections, to make it easier to combine XHTML with other markup languages like vector graphics and multimedia. 

Modularization of XHTML also gives reduced development costs, improved cooperation with other applications (like databases), easier communication with different user agents (browsers), and cleaner integration between HTML and different XML standards.

W3C XHTML Activities

XHTML 1.0

XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML 4.01 in XML.

To learn more about XHTML visit our XHTML tutorial.

XHTML 1.1 (Modular XHTML)

Small devices (like mobile devices) cannot support all XHTML functions. XHTML 1.1 divides the specification into modules with limited functionality. Small browsers can reduce their complexity by supporting only selected modules (but once a module has been chosen, all of its features must be supported).

XHTML 1.1 is a strict language. XHTML 1.1 is not backward compatible with HTML 4.

XHTML Basic

XHTML Basic is a small subset of XHTML 1.1. It contains only basic XHTML features like text structure, images, basic forms, and basic tables. It is designed for small browsers (like in handheld devices).

XHTML Events

With the support for the W3C Document Object Model level 2 in XHTML, event handlers can be attached to XHTML elements so that parent elements can handle events before and after child elements.

To learn more about the DOM, study our DOM tutorial.

XHTML Print

XHTML-Print is a part of XHTML 1.1 (Modular XHTML).

XHTML-Print is designed for mobile devices and low-cost printers that generally print from top to bottom of a page with no printing buffer and without a device specific printer driver.

XForms

With HTML forms, a user can visit a Web page, add information to the page, and submit the page to a Web server.

XForms are the successors to HTML forms, providing a much richer and presentation independent way of handling interactive Web transactions. Designed to be integrated with XHTML, we can expect that future e-commerce applications will demand the use of XForms.

To learn more about XForms, study our XForms tutorial.

XHTML Modularization

XHTML Modularization is about splitting XHTML 1.0 into a collection of small modules that provide specific functionality.

Modularization of XHTML 1.0 is implemented using the XML DTD (Document Type Definition)

Modularization of XHTML 2.0 will be implemented using XML Schemas.

To learn more about DTD, visit our DTD tutorial.

To learn more about XML Schemas, visit our Schema tutorial.

XHTML 2.0

XHTML 2.0 is a next generation markup language. The functionality is expected to remain similar to XHTML 1.1, but the markup language may be altered to conform to the requirements of  XML standards like XML Linking and XML Schema.

XLink

XLink is a language for creating hyperlinks in XML documents. XLink is similar to HTML links - but it is a lot more powerful
XLink supports simple links (like HTML) and extended links (for linking multiple resources together).

You can learn more about XLink in our XLink tutorial.

HLink

HLink adds the ability to specify which attributes of elements represent hyperlinks in XHTML, and specifies how hyperlinks should be traversed.

HLink is an extension to XLink.

W3C HTML Specifications and Timeline

W3C Reference:

W3C HTML Home Page

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W3Schools was converted to XHTML in December 1999