What is HTML, DHTML and XHTML?

[Lop]

HTML
HTML is the lingua franca for publishing hypertext on the World Wide Web. It is a non-proprietary format based upon SGML, and can be created and processed by a wide range of tools, from simple plain text editors - you type it in from scratch- to sophisticated WYSIWYG authoring tools. HTML uses tags such as <h1> and </h1> to structure text into headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext links etc. Here is a 10-minute guide for newcomers to HTML. W3C's statement of direction for HTML is given on the HTML Activity Statement. See also the page on our work on the next generation of Web forms, and the section on Web history.

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

DHTML
DHTML is dynamic HTML. Basically, DHTML is a combination of different technologies to make your HTML interactive. Common languages used are HTML (of course), Java and Stylesheets.

XHTML
The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTMLâ„¢) is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML, reformulated in XML. XHTML Family document types are all XML-based, and ultimately are designed to work in conjunction with XML-based user agents. XHTML is the successor of HTML, and a series of specifications has been developed for XHTML.

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

Will you notice a difference between HTML and XHTML
No, not really. Unless you use other languages such as PHP and Java

Can I convert my HTML into XHTML?
Yes. Here is a very easy way to do it http://tidy.sourceforge.net/



For more FAQs read http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/2004/xhtml-faq#advantages

[Crane]

Nice post! admin, Sticky?

[Dan]

Agreed - these are nice, simple definitions. I'll add CSS to the list!

CSS: A Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) provides the ability to separate the layout and styles of a web page from the data or information. Styles such as fonts, font sizes, margins, can be specified in one place, then the Web pages feed off this one master list, with the styles cascading throughout the page or an entire site.

[DevilsCharm]

So that's what CSS is, I always thought it was another programming language. I still don't completely understand it though, but that's okay as this is really my first encounter with it.

[sn17]

So, what is this XML format???

[myuusmeow]

XML stands for eXtendable Markup Language, it is used in things like XHTML, and RSS/Atom. It's stricter than SGML, as it requires quotation marks around values, all tags must have end tags, and names and atributes must be in lowercase.
All of these "needs" have been passed down to everything that uses XML, including XHTML.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML