the web as frontier and XHTML 1.1

overview
why XHTML 1.1 is important for web developers
issues and modern alternatives
what's next?

overview

a lot of web developers would like to code with XHTML 1.1 but have hesitated because a lot of web users aren't yet using a modern XHTML web browser.
yet there are a number of good reasons to code web pages with the modular XHTML 1.1.
documents coded with an XHTML 1.1 MODULAR doctype do not need to run the larger legacy instruction sets used by legacy HTML markup, and thus can be rendered by modern XHTML browsers more efficiently in comparison to legacy HTML doctype documents.
fortunately, even in the meantime, web developers can pursue modern extensible alternatives to legacy practices that limit the extensibility of content.

why XHTML 1.1 is important for web developers

a lot of web developers would like to code with XHTML 1.1 (a modularization of XHTML 1.0, which is an XML reformulation of HTML) but have hesitated because a lot of web users aren't yet using a modern XHTML web browser.

yet there are a number of good reasons to code web pages with the modular XHTML 1.1, and to find better alternatives to using code trees for specific browsers. some of these reasons include increased productivity and quality in the development of web documents, in addition to more opportunities to reuse markup resources independent of a particular platform, system, device, or revision. documents coded with an XHTML 1.1 MODULAR doctype do not need to run the larger legacy instruction sets used by legacy HTML markup, and thus can be rendered by modern XHTML browsers more efficiently in comparison to legacy HTML doctype documents.

with some planning, web developers can find many ways that applications of extensible workflows can improve bottom lines. for additional information about benefits of coding to standards as opposed to legacy coding on the basis of a specific browser, please refer to Web Standards Project documents:

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issues and modern alternatives

at the same time, coding with XHTML 1.1 MODULAR will pose certain issues for a web developer. some popular browsers provide limited support for XHTML 1.1 doctype documents even if the pages comply with the XHTML 1.1 standards. and the default configuration of XHTML 1.1 does not include extra modules, such as the objects module that can be used for integrating a Java applet. web authors may also need to integrate the use of javascripts that are written specifically for XHTML 1.1 rather than for HTML.

issues involved in migrating to XHTML 1.1 from HTML can be complex, and addressing particular issues will probably call for the use of different various particular solutions. fortunately, even in the meantime until a larger transition to modern XHTML is made by a larger portion of the web community, web developers can pursue modern extensible alternatives to legacy practices that limit the extensibility of content.

fortunately, the issue of the legacy browser can also be addressed with modern alternatives. there are now more modern XHTML browsers that can be obtained at no charge from various third parties. however web developers who wish to deploy XHTML 1.1 may also need to highlight information about the use of modern XHTML browsers on a high-level page that can also be accessed with legacy browsers.

other approaches to supporting users with legacy browsers is to provide content via a different channel, such as a blog, a mail list, a news feed, or a telephone number. the original source content of this article is published as an XHTML 1.1 doctype document, which can then be re-used for an XML syndication with little if any normalization of the markup.

there are different ways to approach the issue of coding a web page that features a Java applet. if you only plan on using a Java applet on one or a few pages, then you might consider coding those pages with the XHTML 1.0 TRANSITIONAL doctype, and then applying the applet tag. as the TRANSITIONAL doctype includes some legacy markup constructs, the content from a TRANSITIONAL document may also need to be normalized before re-use in a STRICT doctype like XHTML 1.1 MODULAR.

another strict approach to integrating Java applets in XHTML 1.1 MODULAR doctypes is to include the OBJECT module of XHTML 1.1. however if you take this approach, then you might also need to reference the particular doctype remodularization (that might possibly limit how your document might be recognized and understood by systems that only know the default modularization). yet these potential issues might also possibly be clarified in a future version of XHTML.

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what's next?

web markup technologies continue to evolve to be more scalable and more powerful. in this sense markup scalability refers to opportunities to reuse markup resources independent of a particular platform, system, device, or revision. and markup power can be characterized as a capacity to select and apply designated markup resources for increased performance or results. in practice, the choice to deploy a particular markup resource can be subject to many different factors. some of these factors include authoring and development workflows, as well as vendor support and the platform and software used by readers. to summarize, web developers can apply modern alternatives to legacy technology. the application of modern alternatives can result in quality content that can result in quality user experience.

for additional information about XHTML 1.1 MODULAR, the forthcoming XHTML 2, the forthcoming HTML 5, HTTP, and many other web markup standards, please visit the W3C web site. the dev notes area of this web site also further discusses issues related to the deployment of filetypeXHT.

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