The Old NetISSUE #25 of 60

references · spec links · validators

Pixel PeteVSQuirks Mode

Pixel Pete saysXHTML’s legacy is the clean-markup discipline you carry into everyday HTML5.

You'll author HTML5, not XHTML — but XHTML's rules are the reason "lowercase, quoted, closed, well-nested" is universal good style. Keep the discipline, skip the brittleness. References: the W3C XHTML specs and validator, the EPUB spec for e-book work, and MDN's HTML pages for the modern syntax you'll actually ship.

Power-ups you unlock

Author HTML5; keep XHTML’s discipline
Clean markup is XHTML’s lasting gift
Refs: W3C specs/validator, EPUB spec
MDN for the modern HTML you ship

Quirks Mode attacks — common mistakes

Adopting XHTML brittleness with the discipline
Skipping clean-markup habits in HTML5
Forgetting EPUB still needs strict XHTML

Boss battleName three XHTML habits worth keeping in your HTML5 today.

Example code

<!doctype html><html lang="en"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>clean</title></head>
<body style="background:#06040d;color:#e6e0ff;font-family:monospace;padding:20px"><pre>keep: lowercase · quoted · closed · nested
drop: brittle XML fatal-error parsing</pre></body></html>

▶ Open the interactive comic issue

‹ Converting Html To Xhtml What Is Dhtml · Html + Css + Js + Dom ›