What is the Difference Between XML and XHTML?
🆚 Go to Comparative Table 🆚XML and XHTML are both markup languages, but they serve different purposes and have some key differences:
- Purpose: XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose markup language for representing structured information, while XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) is a stricter, more XML-based version of HTML, designed to work with XML-based applications.
- Flexibility: XML allows for the creation of custom tags and structures, while XHTML is based on the HTML structure and uses predefined tags.
- Case Sensitivity: XHTML elements must always be in lowercase and enclosed within double quotation marks. XML does not have such restrictions.
- Error Handling: XHTML has a much stricter error handling compared to HTML. In XHTML, any errors in the markup can cause the document to be rendered unreadable.
- Well-formed and Valid: An XML document is said to be well-formed if it uses tags that conform to the standard XML specifications, and it is said to be valid if it conforms to the structure of a Document Type Definition (DTD). XHTML is required to be both well-formed and valid.
In summary, XML is a more flexible and general-purpose markup language, while XHTML is a specific version of HTML that follows XML-based rules and is used for web-based applications. XHTML is more strict and has a different case sensitivity compared to XML.
Comparative Table: XML vs XHTML
Here is a table highlighting the differences between XML and XHTML:
| Feature | XML (Extensible Markup Language) | XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | XML is a markup language used to transfer data and text between driver hardware, operating systems, and applications with little human intervention. | XHTML is a markup language that combines the elements of HTML version 4.01 and the strict syntax of XML. |
| Purpose | XML provides a standard way to encode data and text for easy exchange across different platforms and applications. | XHTML is designed for creating web pages and combines the strengths of XML with HTML, providing a cleaner and stricter markup. |
| Development | XML was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is defined in the XML 1.0 specification. | XHTML was released in 2000 and developed by W3C, extending from XML and HTML. |
| Syntax | XML has a flexible syntax. | XHTML has a strict syntax, making it more structured and easier to read. |
| Parsing | XML can be more complex to parse and process. | XHTML is easier to parse and process than HTML, making it a better choice for developers. |
| MIME Type | XML documents can have various MIME types, such as text/xml or application/xml. | XHTML documents served with a MIME type of text/html must be parsed and interpreted as HTML. |
In summary, XML is a markup language used for data exchange between different platforms and applications, while XHTML is a markup language designed for creating web pages by combining the elements of HTML and the strict syntax of XML.
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