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Experiments with XHTML and CSS

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My Introduction to XHTML and CSS

I have known a little HTML for some years but never really put it to good use. It was partly because of the absence of an easily accessible web server and some lack of motivation. The Network Programming course at IISc made it mandatory for all students to create a course webpage and I saw it as a good opportunity to write my first page and more.

At first, I just rushed through some HTML tutorials to refresh my rusty mind and started creating my website. It is only later that I became aware of the benefits of writing in XHTML and CSS. This led to a laborious process of first learning about XHTML and CSS and then converting all my existing pages to make them XHTML compliant.

At present, my entire Network Programming website is "Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict". The use of Style Sheets has given my page a uniform look and has made it very easy to change the look of the entire website without going through the code of each and every page. CSS also allows much finer control over the appearance of a page than possible with HTML.

References to some sites where you can learn XHTML and CSS are given in the section at the end of the page. Once you are familiar with the basics, reading the source of other pages is a great way to learn some cool tricks.

Also: See the stylesheet for my website.

Benefits of XHTML

A few benefits of XHTML are listed below:
(from The New York Public Library's style guide)

A painless transition to more advanced technology
The web is moving to XML, a powerfully enabling technology. Writing well-formed, valid XHTML pages is the easiest way to begin this transition. All it takes is learning a few simple rules of XHTML markup.
Cleaner, more logical markup
XHTML brings uniformity to document structure. The rules of XHTML help restore the structural integrity of documents that was lost during the web's rapid commercial expansion.
Increased interoperability
Unlike old-style HTML pages, valid, well-formed XHTML documents can easily be "transported" to wireless devices, Braille readers and other specialized web environments. Moreover, XHTML's insistence on clean, rule-based markup helps avoid the kind of errors that can make web pages fail even in traditional browsers.
Greater accessibility
Because they follow strict rules and avoid non-standard markup, well-authored XHTML pages are more accessible than old-school HTML pages

Benefits of CSS

A few benefits of CSS are listed below:
(from The New York Public Library's style guide)

Further References

Here are some recommended links for learning XHTML and CSS.

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