Driven By Standards

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) will transform into XML (eXtensible Markup Language) through the intermediary (X)HTML. There is no ‘if’ about this, the road map has been established by the Internet’s governing body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Common misconception: “There is only one web standard worth the name and that is Microsquat Internet Exploder”. True, there’s a gazillion of cheap Plastic Crap computers strewn across the globe. Each loaded with MSIE. So, in that sense the common misconception is understandable. But a misconception never the less. Because web standards is about freeing the web from browser proprietary, not enforcing a monopoly; it is about making sure that a standards compliant web page will be rendered identically in standards compliant browsers. MSIE is not standards compliant. It just happens to be the most widely used browser today.

But, What About Tomorrow?

Exactly. What about tomorrow? The W3C recommendations and guidelines, which make up what is known as the Web Standards, say that HTML will be replaced by XML. There may be a bit of uncertainty in the Web development community about the timeline, but everyone knows what will happen: HTML is on its way out—and for good reasons. HTML has developed from the strict and uncluttered language it was in the beginning to the unruly, yet limited beast we have today. “Tag soup” is a gentle invective often used to describe its current state, and it says quite clearly what’s amiss.

HTML needs to be fixed if it is to allow for future growth and development; it needs to be more strict in terms of syntax and –ironically– become more liquid in terms of user control. Enter XML. XML is all the things HTML needs to be. It builds on the same techniques and principles as HTML (they both share the same origin in SGL) But where HTML falls short, XML excels. It is a language with strict grammatical rules and at the same time it allows for user defined ‘dialects’ or ‘accents’, e.g. variations and extensions, within the strict grammar of the main language.

There were originally plans to phase out HTML much quicker than what now seems to be the case. For one thing, the bursting of the Internet Bubble slowed everything down and set the timeline back by a couple of years. For another, the W3C wisely realised that for most users, leaping from HTML to XML is not exactly easy. So they devised a bridge, called (X)HTML. (X)HTML is to pave the way for XML by implementing some of the XML basics on HTML, like stricter markup regulation and extending the number of allowed tags in the markup. By doing this, the W3C hopes to make the transition both faster and easier than what would be the case had the original plan been followed. The only problem with that idea is us. People.

“Hang on! We’re only now embracing HTML 4 on a broad scale, for crying out loud, and we’re expected to start thinking about the next step already?”

Well, er, yes. We are. Here’s the ‘why’ part. More browser types. More Web users. More Web users with disabilities. Broadband on a larger scale. Static and streaming high-res content (video and audio) on a larger scale. Higher commercial demands and possibilities. Simply put: XML means well formed, versatile, lightweight code. Lightweight code means smaller files. Smaller files means less clogged airspace, means bigger throughput and quicker downloads, means (ideally) more users willing to pay for services, means bigger revenues for companies offering web based services. So we need to think about (X)HTML and XML. And they require standards.

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