XHTML 1.1
Over the past couple of years HTML has been merging with XML to make more of a sustainable standard for basic-web-coding. In the future when XHTML is more XML than original HTML, it will allow for more scripting prowess. Right now, XHTML is still a bit sketchy and a lot of companies keep exploiting the declartion of coding as ‘loose’. Which roughly translate to, “I can write a bunch of crappy code, that has tags and faulty attributes everywhere, and it’s not going to be a problem when a browser loads it, because they’re good at interpting garbage.”
That declaration of loose is going to change soon. And is alreading something that has to be incorporated into existing sites. I’m not saying that every web-page is going to stop working, but I am saying that those pages won’t be appearing to well on non-desktop devices and future browsers.
Currently their is ‘loose’, ‘transitional’ and ‘strict’ settings for XHTML 1.0. Loose, means “Code like crap… it’s fine.”. Transitional, means “I know you know HTML 4.0, and your getting the jist of it, but how about incorporating some XML into that page?”. And finally strict, means “You’re ready for XHTML 1.1. Good for you Billy!”.
Internet Explorer, the most common browser on the web, is always going to be holier than the pope, but it will be easier to code for once XHTML 1.1 is a widely-used standard.
The reason for making all HTML code XML, is to keep all elements and functionality of the site seperate. There are two other main elements going to be involved with pages, that are already prevelant. CSS and JavaScript. XHTML is going to use, and reliy on CSS for structuring and layout design, while JavaScript is going to be used for functionality in the DOM (Document Object Model). This will make it easier for a mulititude of devices to read the same page. Because those three elements will be split-up and not be interpretated the same, allowing the devices to decide how to interpreate the page, with-out screwing-up the over-all page.