XHTML v HTML5 - BYO Web Site The Right Way

[deejayw]

In the context of the book "BYO Web Site The Right Way", the sample pdf pointed me to a link on the SitePoint site which suggested that XHTML standard development is being / has been dropped in favour of the emerging HTML5 standard.
Out of interest, will SitePoint issue a short publication for translation of 'code' samples rendered obsolete (if any), or a 3rd edition of the book ?

I like the style of the book (sample) bye the way and will probably buy the 2nd edition irrespective of the answer to the question above largely because I am impatient to continue !

Dave

[AlexDawson]

deejayw, just because XHTML is being gracefully declined in favour of HTML5 does not mean that XHTML will stop being a valid coding choice. HTML5 isn't a standard yet, it's still in production and isn't even ready for the mainstream as browser support is somewhat of a contentious topic. Your XHTML code will not become obsolete anytime soon (in fact it's currently more technically valid than HTML5 which isn't even released as a finished product yet). Just go with the book and build the samples, if you feel the need to produce HTML5, it will be a pretty smooth transition when the time comes (as HTML5 thankfully allows for XHTML style coding natively).

[deejayw]

Thanks Alex.
Your last sentence gives me confidence. I didn't want to put energy into learning something with a short shelf life. I'm the type of guy who is likely to pick Betamax and HDDVD instead of VHS and BlueRay ! I'm watching the Plasma/LCD/OLED progression with interest too
Dave

[felgall]

The web community is still many years off adopting HTML 4. Most of the web is still in the process of transitioning from HTML 3.2 to HTML 4.

It will also be many years before HTML 5 becomes a standard and plenty of time for a lot of changes to it before then.

Given how slowly the web community is adopting HTML 4 it could be 20 years or more before HTML 5 is the base standard for web pages.

[AlexDawson]

I didn't want to put energy into learning something with a short shelf life.

The web is a bit of a paradox... thing's evolve exceptionally quickly and stuff appears and disappears regularly, however adoption of those new standards is very slow (especially in education) which means that while HTML5 is the "BluRay" of the web (in that the serial upgraders are taking notice of it), HTML 4.01 (DVD) will still have a place until people make the decision to abandon it entirely (which will be many years off) - and most schools still teach the equivalent of VHS (eek!).