Not signed in (Sign In)

A podcast and forum for those who design, develop and run websites.

Boagworld is not just a web design podcast, it is also a thriving online community. Whether you build, design or run websites there are always people here to help. Whatever your question there is sure to be somebody with the answer.

Welcome, Guest

Want to take part in these discussions? Sign in if you have an account, or apply for one below

Vanilla 1.1.10 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Have your say

Become apart of the Boagworld community...

Talking tech Is it best to learn HTML or XHTML if you want to become a designer?

Bottom of Page

1 to 12 of 12

  1.  
    • CommentAuthorAlkmaar
    • CommentTimeApr 27th 2007 edited
     permalink
    Hi,

    As I said in my intro I'm a tech vet that wants to learn web design. So, in your opinion..which is the best to start with HTML or XHTML? Also, is anyone taking Flash more seriously yet? It seems like Adobe is doing all it can to get the web community to design websites purely from Flash. (then there is Open Source Flash..)

    Thanks!
    Alex
    •  
      CommentAuthorLeesy
    • CommentTimeApr 27th 2007
     permalink
    Well you can't really learn XHTML without learning HTML. They are essentially the same thing but XHTML follows stricter rules. They still have the same elements, attributes etc. Most books on the market will cover both HTML & XHTML. And for some info about HTML & XHTML, take a peek at this: http://www.webstandards.org/learn/articles/askw3c/oct2003/

    As for Flash, it's in extremely heavy use. Not for creating full blown websites as they aren't terribly accessible but it's constantly used for online games, animation etc. With the recent release of Adobe Apollo, people will now also be able to use Flash alongside other technologies to build rich, web driven applications.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDaveH
    • CommentTimeApr 28th 2007
     permalink
    Learn HTML and as soon as you get a handle on it, it is then fairly easy to get stricter with it.

    Full Flash sites can be a pain. I personally don't like them. There are only a handful that fulfil the promise. I like a combination. HTML with Flash Banner, maybe some Flash navigation with (alternate HTML), Flash Slide Shows etc. This is a much more satisfying approach.

    Learning the basics of Flash isn't too hard. Getting into advanced Action Script is more demanding. I like animation side of things, and it is easy enough to use Action Script to animates things. But then when you get into Applications, it's a different story. Depends if you want to be a designer or a developer really.

    I think Flash is being treatment with a lot of respect now and it should, as it is an amazing and handy piece of kit if used in the right way.

    What about looking at Java Script too while learning HTML? Good combination. You can leave Flash till later.
    • CommentAuthorstephendew
    • CommentTimeApr 29th 2007
     permalink
    *Stevie quits to go and be sick at the thought of an entirly Flash based site
    • CommentAuthorAlkmaar
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2007
     permalink
    Great advice from both of you..thanks very much!
    • CommentAuthorAlkmaar
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2007
     permalink
    May I also ask what books, sites or even online training you might recommend?

    Thanks!
    Alex
    • CommentAuthormonfreex
    • CommentTimeMay 1st 2007
     permalink
    There are a lot of online resources about learning (X)HTML. You can try W3Schools (http://w3schools.com/) for starters and articles from AListApart (http://alistapart.com/) which I personally recommend. FIrst I would suggest learning the basics of HTML then following up on XHTML would be easy because they are similar with only some rules to follow. Dont try to use WYSIWYG editors so you'll have a hands on approach in building websites.
    • CommentAuthorAlkmaar
    • CommentTimeMay 1st 2007
     permalink
    Thanks monfreex..I will take your advice.
    • CommentAuthorSergeyz
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2010
     permalink
    According to php tutorial you need to learn html in any cases. Then It will be easier for you to learn XHTML, XML, CSS, PHP...
  10.  permalink
    wow, very old thread brought back from the grave:

    my take: XHTML is HTML with some extra rules, learn HTML, then just learn the XHTML rules.

    Hope that helps,

    Jame & Lion
  11.  permalink
    Definitely.
    •  
      CommentAuthorDoug S.
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2010
     permalink
    Yep, same as Jamie. Due to the release of HTML5 and the death of XHTML2 (no relation to XHTML, really) your best option is to parse as HTML but use the syntax of XHTML. The reason being that XHTML has a stricter syntax that, I find, is easer to debug. It also plays more nicely with things like AJAX and it is required for working with XML and XSLT.

    One reason to use HTML but write XHTML is you get the benefits of HTML. So, for example, if you put a block-level element inside an inline element? No problem. HTML4 and HTML5 are cool with that, XHTML1.0 Strict isn't.

    An example of when this can be handy was in the Handcrafted CSS book by Dan Cederholm. In his example he showed mocking up a bit of data on a page that, structurally, was best served as a table. However, due to interaction concerns, each row needed to be a link. In HTML you can wrap the row in an anchor tag and call it a day (it's valid). However, in XHTML, you can't.

    So now what I'm starting to do is use XHTML when I can and HTML when I must.

1 to 12 of 12

  1.