XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language)
A stricter XML-based version of HTML that enforces coding standards, ensuring websites render consistently across browsers.
XHTML, or Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, is a reformulation of HTML as an XML application, enforcing stricter syntax rules and coding standards than traditional HTML. While HTML is forgiving of minor errors and inconsistencies, XHTML requires properly nested tags, lowercase element names, quoted attributes, and well-formed documents that validate against XML standards. This strictness was designed to ensure websites render consistently across different browsers and devices, making code more predictable and maintainable. Although XHTML gained popularity in the early 2000s, the web development community has largely moved to HTML5, which offers more flexibility while still encouraging good coding practices. However, understanding XHTML remains valuable because its principles of clean, well-structured code continue to influence modern web development standards. Hosting servers handle XHTML files just like regular HTML, serving them to browsers that interpret and display the content according to the stricter XHTML rules.
