detox — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 13:34:16 +0000

Now is one of the best times to be getting into learning (X)HTML etc. By learning XHTML you are forced to be way more accurate and precise with your code, thus making you a better coder.

Any time someone says anything like this ie be more precise and accurate with your coding skills, I get a cold horrible feeling pass over me because it reminds me of my first days (1993) of learning stuff like Pascal at University! Sitting over tonnes of lines just to find a misplaced comma or something!!!!

Megan — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 03:02:35 +0000

And if you start with that you won't get into any bad habits! I think a lot of us who have been working with the old standards for years and years are having a harder time switching over, because of certain habits you develop (like not closing certain tags or writing code in upper case).

Suzanne — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 01:22:43 +0000

xhmtl 1.0 is what you should be learning, html 4.01 at the very oldest. I would recommend just learning xhtml 1.0, and refering to html 4.01 if you develop for lower browsers exclusively. Developing to the xhtml 1.0 standard means you will be able to have things degrade fairly well for lower browsers, and be forward compatible for future upgrades to the languages used.

Together with that, you'll want to learn CSS and consider reading up on, if not learning, XML.

Suzanne