HTML 4.01 v XHTML 1.1

[Big_Dave]

If you were designing a new site from scratch (non Actinic), would you design it in HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.1? (A simple site not particularly content rich).

I'm told that HTML is still the standard but is more prone to errors and newer browsers will not be so forgiving of those errors?

XHTML is supposed to be the successor of HTML? It is more strict and therefore less prone to errors for different browsers to struggle with?

Just curious as my trial version of Expression Web defaults to XHTML 1.1 when starting a new web page. So perhaps its more stable or WC3 compliant?

[gabrielcrowe]

XHTML 1.1

why? becasue i'm a nut, and i basically dont have a life outside the validator.

for something that will only be viewed in the browser, i'd go for html. its much more forgiving, and i'd only use true xhtml if my data were trans-dimensional (tm). i'm guessing that your site wont be viewed on a mobile phone, or is part of a highly structured cms?

html it is.

[Coggy]

It is more strict and therefore less prone to errors for different browsers to struggle with?

XHTML is a reformation of the existing HTML 4.XX that conforms to the XML specification. As you would have seen, many web sites can contain "bad" HTML that either a) still display fine in desktop browsers or b) display differently across various browsers. And devices like mobile phones do not have the resources or power to interpret a "bad" HTML.

XHTML ensures that all documents are "well-formed", providing a greater level of inter-operability. It is also HTML 4 compliant, which provides both backward and forward compatibilty.

If you were designing a new site from scratch (non Actinic), would you design it in HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.1?

If I were starting a site from scratch, I would use XHTML.