RE: [WSG] A quick XHTMLquestion

[Bradley Wright]

I certainly agree with your main points here Mark, but of course I feel 
compelled to add something of my own:

XHTML, HTML (both of which are current (and valid) standards; something 
alot of people have forgotten about) and any other web technology (CSS, 
DOM etc., which likely aren't appropriate things to lump together like 
this), are like any other technology: they should be used based whether 
or not they're appropriate to the situation. It's like Flash for Flash's 
sake, and the subsequent backlash against Flash.

Flash is a great tool when used appropriately. However, like Flash, 
using XHTML for the sake of following the current "standards are all 
important" trend in the design community (admittedly one of the better 
trends I've seen) isn't appropriate either.

I also believe that the MIME type is important: it's part of the 
standard for XHTML. Following standards is hard, agreed, but if you're 
going to follow them you should follow them, no matter how hard it is. 
The inherent level of difficuly involved perhaps says something about 
XHTML: despite the maturity that the standard has reached, if 
user-agents can't keep up then maybe it's not ready for prime-time yet. 
Controversial opinion perhaps, but the logic seems to make sense.

There are always two sides to the coin (or argument), and standards are 
always a good thing to keep in mind, if for no other reason than simply 
because it's the way the web was intended to work: around meaning and 
structure. Standards are VERY important in this sense: to make pages 
MEAN something. That's the real reason why I love these standards.

I, however, am still going to experiment and push the boundaries of this 
standard, because I believe it's the way forward. It's just that being 
totally "hard-assed" about standards is just as damaging to the 
standards as not following them at all. Moderation is the key, as it is 
with most things. I assume most of us run our businesses through this 
medium, and as business people we need to keep what's appropriate for 
the client in mind, as well as the future of the web.

Just my two cents. (possibly that'll end up getting rounded down to 0 
cents though)



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