Question

I wonder why I should use XHTML instead of HTML.

XHTML is supposed to be “modularized”, but I haven’t seen any server side language take advantage of any of that.

XHTML is also more strict, and I don’t see the advantage. What does XHTML offer that I need so bad? How does it make my code “better”?

EDIT: another question I found in the comments: Does XHTML parse faster than HTML?

EDIT2: after reading all your comments and the links, I indeed agree that another post deserves to be the correct answer, so I chose the one that directly links to the best source.

Also, goes to show that people upvote the green comment without even reading it.

Answer 1

You should read Beware of XHTML, which is an informative article that warns about some of the pitfalls of XHTML over HTML.

I was pretty gung-ho about XHTML until I read it, but it does make several valid points. Including the following bit;

XHTML 1.x is not “future-compatible”. XHTML 2, currently in the drafting stages, is not backwards-compatible with XHTML 1.x. XHTML 2 will have lots of major changes to the way documents are written and structured, and even if you already have your site written in XHTML 1.1, a complete site rewrite will usually be necessary in order to convert it to proper XHTML 2. A simple XSL transformation will not be sufficient in most cases, because some semantics won’t translate properly.

HTML 4.01 is actually more future-compatible. A valid HTML 4.01 document written to modern support levels will be valid HTML 5, and HTML 5 is where the majority of attention is from browser developers and the W3C.

Future compatibility can be huge when working on some projects. The article goes on to make several other good points, but I think that may have stood out the most for me.

Don’t mistake the article for a rant against XHTML, the author does talk about the good points of XHTML, but it is good to be aware of the shortcomings before you dive in.