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Thread: Re[2]: Unclosed list tags

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 11:16AM
Subject: Re[2]: Unclosed list tags
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> but real XHTML won't be suitable for the WWW for years (since IE
> does not support real XHTML).

Could you please explain why? IE is far from perfect, but it certainly
seems to support XHTML to me (at least in recent IE versions). It may not
have the best support for CSS styling of XHTML content, but I don't
see any cases where true, standards-based XHTML breaks in IE.

Jared Smith

From: Susan R. Grossman
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 11:59AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Unclosed list tags
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I beleive he's referring to the mime type (doctype declaration) for
xhtml 1.1 xhtml 1.0 can be served as text/html., but xhtml 1.1 can't
be served up as text/html. but must be application/xhtml+xml and IE
doesn't support application/xhtml+xml

Susan



Jared Smith wrote:

>>but real XHTML won't be suitable for the WWW for years (since IE
>>does not support real XHTML).
>>
>>
>
>Could you please explain why? IE is far from perfect, but it certainly
>seems to support XHTML to me (at least in recent IE versions). It may not
>have the best support for CSS styling of XHTML content, but I don't
>see any cases where true, standards-based XHTML breaks in IE.
>
>Jared Smith
>
>----
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>
>
>
>

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 2:25PM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Unclosed list tags
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On Wed, 6 Oct 2004, Jared Smith wrote:

> > but real XHTML won't be suitable for the WWW for years (since IE
> > does not support real XHTML).
>
> Could you please explain why? IE is far from perfect, but it certainly
> seems to support XHTML to me (at least in recent IE versions).

The operative word is "seems".

If you send a document labelled (in HTTP headers) with
Content-Type: application/xhtml+xml
to IE, it will get mad - just start a "Save As" dialogue.

The only way to make IE understand XHTML at all is to mis-label
it as text/html, which means that IE will process it as HTML.
If you are cautious and apply the (in)famous appendix C of the
XHTML 1.0 specification, you might manage to fool IE into treating your
XHTML document the right way.

> It may not
> have the best support for CSS styling of XHTML content, but I don't
> see any cases where true, standards-based XHTML breaks in IE.

_Any_ true XHTML breaks it.

Besides, XHTML 1.0 gives _no_ functional improvement over HTML 4.01.
It's only when you go beyond XHTML 1.0 in the XHTML road when you find
something potentially useful. But then you can't any more fool IE
into processing it as HTML, so it goes into pieces. And this will probably
remain the situation until Longhorn is on the market, and how long will it
take before it gets even 50 % penetration worldwide?

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

From: Victoria Hamill
Date: Thu, Oct 07 2004 6:10AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Unclosed list tags
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Thanks all for your help on this. I'll stick to lists, as that seems to be
the most harmless.

In answer to Deryck's question about what DOCTYPE we're using, I wish we
even had one! The site in question is running on Domino 5, which refuses to
produce a doctype at all, so all of our attempts at accessibility are
hindered immediately. Fortunately the latest version of Domino, and thus
our later sites, do generate a DOCTYPE, so at least the future is bright
:-)

Victoria
-----------------------------------------------------
Victoria Hamill
NetInfo
Phone: (44) 1628-687863
Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
URL: http://www.netinfo.com
- More than meets the eye



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On Wed, 6 Oct 2004, Jared Smith wrote:

> > but real XHTML won't be suitable for the WWW for years (since IE
> > does not support real XHTML).
>
> Could you please explain why? IE is far from perfect, but it certainly
> seems to support XHTML to me (at least in recent IE versions).

The operative word is "seems".

If you send a document labelled (in HTTP headers) with
Content-Type: application/xhtml+xml
to IE, it will get mad - just start a "Save As" dialogue.

The only way to make IE understand XHTML at all is to mis-label
it as text/html, which means that IE will process it as HTML.
If you are cautious and apply the (in)famous appendix C of the
XHTML 1.0 specification, you might manage to fool IE into treating your
XHTML document the right way.

> It may not
> have the best support for CSS styling of XHTML content, but I don't
> see any cases where true, standards-based XHTML breaks in IE.

_Any_ true XHTML breaks it.

Besides, XHTML 1.0 gives _no_ functional improvement over HTML 4.01.
It's only when you go beyond XHTML 1.0 in the XHTML road when you find
something potentially useful. But then you can't any more fool IE
into processing it as HTML, so it goes into pieces. And this will probably
remain the situation until Longhorn is on the market, and how long will it
take before it gets even 50 % penetration worldwide?

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/