Pixel Pete saysBecause XHTML is XML, you can transform it with XSLT and style it with XML stylesheets.
XML's tooling applies: an <?xml-stylesheet?> processing instruction can attach an XSLT transform that rewrites the document tree, or a CSS file. XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) converts one XML shape into another — powerful for data-to-markup pipelines, though heavy and rarely used for everyday pages.
Power-ups you unlock
XHTML is XML → XSLT and XML stylesheets apply
<?xml-stylesheet?> attaches a transform
XSLT rewrites the document tree
Powerful but heavy; niche today
Quirks Mode attacks — common mistakes
Reaching for XSLT where templates are simpler
Forgetting XSLT needs true XML parsing
Confusing XSLT with CSS styling
Boss battleExplain what an XSLT transform does to an XHTML document.
Example code
<!doctype html><html><head><meta charset="utf-8"></head>
<body style="background:#06040d;color:#e6e0ff;font-family:monospace;padding:20px"><pre><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="transform.xsl"?>
XSLT: input XML tree → output XML/HTML tree</pre></body></html>