[Klug-general] Interactive Websites

[Allen Brooker]

Peter Childs wrote:
> On 15/12/06, Karl Lattimer <karl at qdh.org.uk> wrote:
>> > It's people like you who abuse XML by trying to rewrite every single
>> > file ever created using it and give XML a bad name. XML does have a use
>> > - but uselessly bloating simple text files is not it.
>> >
>> > Allen
>>
>> LMFAO
>>
> I don't disaggree XML is horrid but why redraft HTML to XML and write
> a brand new language in a brand new format just and illegable?
> 
> Peter Childs

NO! NO! NO! XML isn't horrid.

It's only your suggested use of it that is horrid!

HTML (derived from SGML) was rewritten to XHTML (based on XML) because
XML is stricter on requirements for things like closing tags. This makes
it much easier to parse (read and change into a format which the
computer can understand) than HTML, especially for devices with
restricted resources (mobile phones and other portable devices for example).

Having XHTML as an XML based markup language also means we can do really
nifty things like mix in other XML based formats - such as a language
dedicated to form processing (eg. XForms) - or easily convert between
formats (see XSLT) - you can produce an XML document with any XML based
language and easily convert it to XHTML or any other XML based format.

Allen