Is there a difference?

[michelle32145]

Does anyone know if I can head directly for XHTML without learning HTML?
Is there a difference?

[ryanhellyer]

The differences between HTML and XHTML are very complex.

There is no point in using XHTML however as the most popular browser Internet Explorer does not support it and is not likely to support it in IE8 either. Microsoft does not seem interested in support XHTML at all and ALL of the major browser manufacturers are pushing ahead with support for the intended HTML5 specification with no intention of supporting XHTML2.

Many people use XHTML as text/HTML, however this is relatively pointless as the browser simply renders the XHTML as HTML anyway. In a nutshell ... the experts recommend using HTML4 at the moment, so it is probably best to stick with that until support for either HTML5 or XHTML improves.

[michelle32145]

i've been doing some research recently, and found that xhtml is a up-grade one.
but still can't figure out the difference between the two, it seems alike.

[ryanhellyer]

XHTML is not an upgrade per se. It is just different, albeit it essentially behaves the same in current browsers.

[antoniyo]

XHTML is the developed language of HTML it mean HTML is the base of XHTML, so i don't think that you can learn XHTML well without learning HTML.

[digitaldesperad]

The Most Important Differences:

* XHTML elements must be properly nested
* XHTML elements must always be closed
* XHTML elements must be in lowercase
* XHTML documents must have one root element

[!!underlink!!]

i would just go for HTML dont bother with X if you need it youll pick it up anyway

[ajp76054]

jump into xhtml its the same thing but there are more checks in it in order for the code to work. It is really like an audit system to let you know that this line of code doesnt work.