The XHTML vs HTML Debate

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I follow these endless debates every so often. Want to read some — there are hundreds: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=xhtml+vs+html

My approach to just about everything is this: What makes it easiest for ME to do something? It doesn’t have to be cool, new, or have some bell or whistle, or be fashionable. It needs to get the job done, period.

So, I suppose you know where I am going with my position on this — for almost every scenario, I choose HTML (sometimes with depreciated tags too). To be perfectly honest, I have yet to specifically create a page with XHTML, although I sometimes do because the tool I use may encode it that way by default.

So why the big debate? There are certainly many valid reasons someone may choose XHTML as their preference. Under most circumstances (in my experience), XHTML offers little or no benefit (and is often harder to write due to its strict nature, XML-qualities like case sensitivity, and the whole idea of passing an XHTML document as a mime type of text/html will probably kill it for the future — see this article: http://www.hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml).

I think people in technology like to feel they are always using the bleeding edge of technology — the newest tools, the latest trendy languages — you get the idea. While this all sounds nice, as a coder AND a Micro-ISV owner, these are not valid reasons to adopt a new technology. There are other considerations (such as efficiency, compatibility, manageability to name a few).

So I (like so many others) continue to use tools and technologies that, while not the most fashionable or trendy, continue to get the job done. Perhaps I am just an old diansour at 37.