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XHTML is pants.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:14 am
by Gen-ik
It's official, XHTML is pants!

:arrow: It doesn't allow <table> or <td> objects to be sized using percentage heights ie "height:100%", :arrow: it doesn't like too many tables within tables, :arrow: it has a complete lack of respect for anything other than the most basic HTML syntax. :arrow: If you are in any way slightly creative when it comes to website designs you can kiss all of your cool ideas goodbye.

We'll be taking a step back if this skinny little runty pig of a markup language becomes 'the be all and end all' of standards. Who ever came up with it needs a good slap round the face.

I tried to like it I really did but it's just too basic. Before you know it we'll all be back in the dark ages tapping away on the keyboards of rehashed Commodor 16s and Spectrums trying to get a pixel moving across the screen without running out of memory.


How do the rest of you feel about XHTML :?:

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:19 am
by McGruff
Personally I like the move from table-based layouts to CSS. Much nicer way to work, imho.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:30 am
by jasonjohns
i like the idea but in the interim it is a pain in the...pants. Moving dozens of custom applications from table layouts to css layouts is going to be a nightmare. Luckily we've been using Smarty so we'll just have to modify the templates and not every php script.

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:42 am
by twigletmac
XHMTL does remove a lot of the stuff you had in HTML <i>but</i> most of this should now be done using CSS. XHTML is not about making things look pretty so it doesn't need font tags, or color and align attributes...

It doesn't allow tables to be sized percentage height ways because you shouldn't be using tables for layout if you're using XHTML.

It doesn't allow loads of nested tables because you shouldn't be using tables for layout if you're using XHTML.

It has a complete lack of respect for anything other than the most basic HTML syntax because you should use CSS for formatting, not HTML.

If you want to be creative use CSS, loads more options for creativity than HTML because it is specifically designed for display not for markup.

XHTML plus CSS is the way forward, separation of style from content makes upkeep 100% easier. File sizes are smaller (don't have hundreds of font tags), if you decide to make all H1 red it takes a second to change.

Mac

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2003 11:25 am
by Gen-ik
Strangly enough I use CSS all of the time for almost every part of the websites I create, from defining fonts through to using it for mouseover/mouseout effects.

I very rarely use any of the <font> <h1> <hr> etc tags any more. It's all been handed over to CSS now.

I still fail to understand why it's sooooooo important to get away from using tables to layout the page though. It seems like the easiest way to do it and using tables with CSS gives you as much control as you could need over the layout of the pages.


I would give my right arm... and leg... to see someone attempt to recreate this Forum using Strict XHTML.... no tables.... and no <font> tags :wink:

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 2:48 pm
by m3rajk
not sure yet. seems to allow the 2-layer table. i know i should move it to css, but i find moving to divs and using css it gets extremely annoying to keep things relative through different display sizes. using nested tables to a small degree (something i try to use sparingly even before this move) works better.

if anyone wants to give me pointers, feel free....

better living through xhtml

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:30 pm
by jasonjohns
a decent article on xhtml and the real world.

http://alistapart.com/articles/betterliving/

from a list apart