I was re-reading "designing with web standards" from Jefferey Zeldman today and came across his top 10 reasons to convert to XHTML. This book was originally written in 2003, but these reasons are just as relevent today and bear repeating.
Top Ten Reasons to Convert to XHTML
1) XHTML is the current markup standard replacing HTML 4.
2) XHTML is designed to work well with other XML based markup
3) XHTML is more consistent than HTML, so it's less likely to cause problems of function and display.
4) XHTML 1.0 is a bridge to future versions of XHTML. Should the XHTML 2 draft specification achieve final recommendation status, it will be easier to adapt to it (if you choose to do so) from XHTML 1.0 than from HTML.
5) Old browsers are as comfortable with XHTML as they are with HTML. There's no advantage to XHTML in this regard, but there is no disadvantage either.
6) New Browsers love XHTML (particularily XHTML 1.0) and many accord it special treatment not granted to pages authored in HTML 4. This makes XHTML more pretictable than HTML in many cases.
7) XHTML works as well in wireless devices, screen readers, and other specialized user agents as it does in traditional desktop browsers, in many casesremoving the need to create specialized wireless markup versions and allowing sites to reach more visitors with less work and at lower cost. We can't be positive about cause and effect, but many HTML sites are saddled with wireless versions, text-only versions, and special print-friendly pages, while most XHTML sites are free of such encumbrances - one document serves all. (In most cases, one document serves all if it's properly styled for multiple media, and that's what CSS is for.)
8) XHTML is part of a family of web standards (also including CSS and the W3C Document Object Model) that let you control the behavior and appearance of web pages across multiple platforms, browsers and devices.
9) Authoring in XHTML can assist you in breaking the habit of writing presentaional markup, and that in turn can help you avoid accessibility problems and inconsistencies of display between manufacturers' desktop browsers. (If you write structural XHTML and place all of your visual flourishes in CSS, where they belong, you'll no longer be overly concerned about differences in the way Netscape and Mocrosoft's browsers treat, say, empty table cells to which widths have been applied.
10) Authoring in XHTML can get you into the habit of testing your work against Markup Validation Services, which in turn can often save testing and debugging time and help you avoid many basic accessibility errors, such as neglecting to inlcude a usable alt attribute to every ![]()
tag.
Top 5 reasons not to switch to XHTML
1) You get paid by the hour
2) You enjoy creating multiple versions of every page for every conceivable browser or device.
3) The little man in your head told you not to.
4) You're quitting the web business.
5) You don't know the rules of XHTML.
If you need more reasons to switch to XHTML please contact me .
