enhanceability.com development notes
content on this page is subject to change as development updates occur.
other web sites linked from the dev directory on enhanceability.com are maintained by other particular organizations or individuals.*
deployment of filetype(xht)
this web site uses the more efficient and more powerful XHTML 1.1 markup, and also makes use of a standard XHTML file extension that consists of a more readily usable 3, rather than a less readily usable 5, characters. some current developments of web standards indicate that these approaches can be regarded as best practices.
these gains in efficiency and standards interoperability however call for the use of modern browsers that can display documents with XHTML and CSS constructs. during the deployment of the newer XHTML 1.1 documents with an 'xht' filetype, some issues arose. there is some widespread (though possibly not yet fully integrated by all vendors) support for XHTML 1.1 doctype documents with an 'xht' file extension.
the following development notes for the deployment of dot(xht) on the enhanceability.com web site are intended to provide some pertinent information concerning dot(xht) compatibility. the following notes do not represent exhaustive nor complete testing of standards compatibility or support. it is however anticipated that remaining undeveloped ('?') support for the 'xht' file extension could be addressed with minor release software patch updates.
why use 'xhtml' or 'xht' rather than 'html' for XHTML 1.1 doctypes?
a recent version of the W3C markup validator has suppressed the mime type warning (5197) about the use of an 'html' file extension for an XHTML 1.1 document. however the W3C Note on XHTML Media Types provides additional information about a best practices rationale for naming XHTML 1.1 documents with an 'xhtml' or an 'xht' file extenstion.
for additional information about the establishment of the 'xht' file extension for XHTML documents, please refer to the following:
comparisons of filetype(xht) compatibility
vendor support for the 'xht' file extension is difficult to compare. one might anticipate that support for the 'xht' file extension could be accommodated with methods similar to those used for the 'xhtml' or 'html' file extensions. these comparisons are subject to developments by vendors and standards developers.
file extension support with XHTML 1.1 doctype
| development | html | xhtml | xht |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safari 3.0.4 (Mac OS X) | + | + | + |
| Opera 9.51 (Mac OS X) | + | + | + |
| Firefox 3.0 (Mac OS X) | + | + | + |
| Internet Explorer 7 (Windows) | + | ?download? | ?download? |
| enhanceability.com web server | + | + | + |
| W3C markup validator (c8B) | warning | + | + |
| W3C markup validator (c8H) | + | + | + |
| Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 v9.0 markup validation** | + | + | + |
| Oxygen 9.1 markup validation*** | + | + | + |
| Oxygen 9.3 markup validation | + | + | + |
**Dreamweaver needed to be reconfigured manually to treat the 'xht' file extension like an HTML document. see the Adobe web site for more information.
***the 'xhtml' and 'xht' filetypes could be checked for both well-formedness and for xml/doctype validity regardless of whether opened in terms of an xml or an html filetype.
the web server should also be configured to serve XHTML 1.1 documents with 'xhtml' or 'xht' extensions as content-type 'application/xhtml+xml' rather than the 'text/html' content type served for legacy HTML documents (yet note that forthcoming HTML 5 specification is expected to encompass the XML syntax of XHTML 1.1 as one particular syntax). check with W3C for further information.
patching 'xht' for IE7 might be as simple as adding the 'xht' file extension to the list of other HTML filetypes like 'html', 'htm', and 'xhtml'.
why is a filetype(xht) useful for web users and developers?
from a web usability standpoint, there are many common user tasks for which a 3 character 'xht' file extension is more readily usable than a 5 character 'xhtml' file extension. Users who use a touch type screen rather than a full-sized keyboard, or who paste a URL, can benefit from a more readily usable file name extension such as 'xht'.
XHTML documents do not need to run the larger legacy HTML instruction sets used by legacy HTML and thus can be rendered by modern XHTML browsers more efficiently in comparison to legacy HTML documents. XHTML 1.1 documents are moreover more interoperable with the widely-used XML standards for structuring information.
CSS standards make possible a more efficient presentation of structured content in terms of dedicated style rules.
here are links to some test files for the following XHTML 1.1 doctype documents with various file extensions:
*enhanceability.com principal Ronald L Stone is an ardent supporter of Alliance for the Advancement of Technology's educational programs.
| enhanceability.com document updated: |
| UCN 12010 A22 White ✦ IDC UT t515 tt451 |
| day of year 022 |
| AD 2010 January 22 Friday ✦ SMH UT 12:22:15 |
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