HTML is an abbreviation of Hyper Text Markup Language which has further modified into its various versions of HTML 4, DHTML, HTML 5, and XHTML. It is the basic language that the browsers utilize to translate the website display on the browser. There has been a strong rift between XHTML and HTML5 for domination of web development. HTML 5 is the latest modification of HTML4.01 which is focused to address the issues found in previous versions. The new functionality of HTML5 depicts the user interaction with the web specially with mobile browsing being the latest trend. Since its launch with new specifications catering the needs of latest browsing activities and trends, it has proved to be a successful evolution for web application developers.
On the other hand, XHTML is an abbreviation for eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language. XHTML is an application derived from XML which has a strict angle-bracket as compared to HTML5. HTML is however, formed on the basis of SGML –Standard Generalized Markup Language. As compared to HTML5 case insensitive elements, XHTML is case sensitive. XHTML was built to offer more flexibility as compared to HTML which allows the web pages to be loaded on browsers running on different platforms. Thus HTML5 easily supports all the latest browser versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer.
HTML5 which is a successor to HTML4 has some extensive features to previous versions and even XHTML which makes it a possible replacement for XHTML in the long run. HTML5 offers some new features to enrich the documents with enhanced factors like menus, navigations, tags for headers. It also provides support to media files of images, video, audio, animations and many other media types. This new attribute has eliminated the requirement for flash which is a separate media plug-in. Thus, HTML5 provides its users to easily integrate any type of media which is not possible with XHTML.
Also the Doctype in HTML5 is simpler than XHTML. When it comes to compatibility with browsers, HTML5 is more versatile for all types of browsers but it is difficult to maintain and learn as compared to XHTML. HTML offers easy coding to its developers whereas XHTML compels them to follow strict and proper coding structures.
Since there are various devices being used these days by users for browsing purposes like tablets, iPads, laptops, mobiles etc, hence it is important for the developers to work with a language that is smooth and flexible for these kinds of devices. Hence HTML5 gives you the freedom to do browsing on various devices, specifically mobile handsets which is a very common practice these days. XHTML, on the other hand, is specifically suitable for computers. Since mobile browsing is continuously on the rise, it has become compulsion on websites to be able to provide compatibility modes of their sites for mobile devices. For this purpose web developers are using HTML5 for mobile browsing feasibility.
The geo-location feature offered in HTML5 is another new addition which was not previously available and supported by XHTML. Since HTML5 supports the mobile version of websites, it enables the geo-location feature available for mobile web apps, which enables the site to search user location either through GPRS or WiFi and Bluetooth. Also flash alternatives are also a major feature of HTML5; like Canvas that uses JavaScript to control graphics on the webpage.
Even though, HTML5 is currently the latest version of language and is popularly used by web developers to ornament their websites, yet XHTML is still holding its position in the industry. However, the dominance of both languages depends on the usage of developers.
