What is XHTML?

HTML(HyperText Markup Language) is the simplest language in which a webpage can be written. It is a markup language which is a combination of humanly readable language and language intended for the computer program to understand. In the case of HTML, the web browser is the computer program that interprets this language. HTML tells the web browser how the page you have written should look. Through HTML, the webpage may include aspects like texts, links, pictures, sound, and video.

New web standards as provided by the W3C Standards body, has stated that we should use a version of HTML called XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language). XHTML works exactly like HTML with only small changes required. For the sake of this course, we will be working with XHTML as opposed to HTML as it is the leading edge of web page development.

You can create an XHTML file using several methods. You can use a program called an XHTML editor, a simple text editor such as Notepad will work just as well. There are also programs, such as Dreamweaver, GoLive, or Frontpage, that allow you to draw up a design for a webpage and then take care of the XHTML for you.