Web Consortium issues XHTML recommendation

By Margret Johnston
IDG News Service, 04/10/01

WASHINGTON - The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published the Modularization of Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) specification as a W3C recommendation, the consortium said Tuesday.

The Modularization of XHTML makes it possible to create subsets of XHTML that can be combined to create richer Web content and can be used by a variety of devices, including handheld computers, mobile phones, set-top boxes and fixed appliances.

Modularization of XHTML builds on the release in December of the XHTML Basic specification as a W3C recommendation. XHTML Basic was the first implementation of modularization and followed the release in January last year of XHTML 1.0 -- a blending of HTML and Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Modularization of XHTML defines a method for separating XHTML 1.0 into a collection of modules, each enabling a group of related HTML functions, such as lists, forms, tables and images. This gives product and specification developers standard building blocks for creating content and standard methods for specifying which blocks are used.

Modularization of XHTML provides examples of modules that can be made with XHTML and shows specification developers and program developers how to build their own modules in a way that will work with others, said Janet Daly, spokeswoman for W3C.

A program developer concerned with automating the delivery of content to different devices, for example, may want to make his own XHTML modules, and this specification tells them how to do that, Daly said.

A W3C recommendation indicates that a specification is stable and mature, contributes to Web interoperability and has been reviewed by the W3C membership. It also indicates the W3C favors supporting its widespread adoption by academic, industry and research communities.

In another recent XHTML development, a number of wireless vendors including Nokia, L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., Motorola and Siemens, last month announced they are backing XHTML as the language for creating all content regardless of whether it is for the fixed Internet or the mobile phone world.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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