Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of loyaliser
loyaliserFlag for United States of America

asked on

closed tags support

in the new version of HTML it seems that all tags need to be closed.

so, for example, <br> tags should be written as <br />

my question is:

can i use this syntax with all tags in my pages? or will it affect older version browsers?

what is the rule on this?

thanks...
Avatar of Marianne
Marianne
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

This is XML, not HTML, which requires all tags to be closed. It will not make any harm to your site's appearance in old browsers, but if you will never need to use XML, this would be completely useless things that make code bigger, and that's bad.
XHTML, leveret. Remember that XHTML 1.0 has replaced HTML 4.0 as the standard. I would encourage you, loyaliser, to look at the benefits of XHTML against HTML.

XHTML provides for a standardised way of writing elements instead of really ugly HTML code with no consistency whatsoever. I must say that size is not everything in a web application. It is maintainability, debuggability and extensibility that makes a site worthwhile. Without these 3 things, it is very difficult for a site to grow in value, content and target audience.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of b1xml2
b1xml2
Flag of Australia image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
>>>if you will never need to use XML, this would be completely useless
things that make code bigger, and that's bad.

Since when is forward compatibility bad?  The XHTML 1.01 standard will at some point take over and the end tags will be required.  Why would any one develop a site that does not support XML, when it is obvious that future developers will either have to use it or lose their clients to developrs who can deliver superior in less time for less money using XML.

IMHO.  Any developer who is not coding in the support for XML is creating maintenance problems, and delivering poor value to their clients.

As for current suppport 99% of browsers in use will have no problem with the end tag shortcut.


Cd&
Avatar of loyaliser

ASKER

TO b1xml2:

well that all sounds like encouraging news... so i don't have to go through all my code and change all my work. XHTML is the way to go... as i started using. just wanted to make sure would not have browser problems.

much cleaner way of doing it...

since i use it, do i need to change this at top of page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">

or leave the same?

TO cobol:

good points. i am of the same mindset... thanks!
leave it be, or use the XHTML DOCTYPE.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
...

</html>
Heh, I am sometimes really dissapointed by the whole idea of this resource :(

It seems that in order to like it you should post thoughts immediately to get points, poINTS, POINTS!.. While normally complicated questions require a discussion, not just answers as such. The discussion is something I would value much higher than these ready-for-use solutions that appear and disappear here every day.

Sorry, I actually wanted to defend my opinion on the topic, but I guess I'm late.

Good luck.
leveret:

u have a valid point, and i agree... i should have waited longer before closing it out.

sorry for the trouble... and thanks for your input.

it is much appreciated in any case, as are the other comments left by users.
loyaliser,


also, when coding with XHTML, use the validator!

http://validator.w3.org/


makes it much easier to find mistakes.


BRUNO