Many people in the Web industry including some markup experts aren?t necessarily convinced that XHTML offers any of the advantages for most Web designers that HTML does. What do you think ?

The limitations of HTML largely emerge from its very specific vocabulary, which carries over into XHTML. XML itself is very semantic.In HTML, we use specific tags to achieve a given goal. In XML, tags are more specific to the topic at hand and are entirely generated by the author. XHTML attempts to provide some bridge from the limitations of a specific vocabulary to a more open specification.

So Is XHTML Better? If we have HTML and it serves its purpose on the Web, is XHTML better?

I believe it is, and here are my reasons:
-> You get greater rigor in authoring results in more consistently authored
documents.
-> Grammar rules are far less arbitrary in XHTML than they are in HTML.
As a result, authors with good knowledge of markup will make fewer
errors and waste less time debugging and troubleshooting.
-> XHTML is easier to learn and teach because the rules are stricter.
-> Greater rigor in the language means greater consistency in documents
from author to author.

html has to be the best but there are so many other good langauges out there.

One thing to keep in mind, make sure you use a DOCTYPE. I have even heard some people label XHTML as HTML 5.0.

Forgive this noob poster... but how is .shtml different from .html, .htm, .xtml ?

xhtml is just the new version of html (.html and .htm are interchangeable as file named for either). Some of the tags are different like <em> as a new tag and more need to use / to close tags. I don't know the big underlying difference but in terms of simple coding it is no great change. People are gradually moving over to it.

As far as I know shtml is just a code used to show you are on a secure page and so can safely enter bank details and so forth.

Hi,
Personally I'm just barely getting the hang of html.
I have the Coffee Cup HTML editor on my computer and
I like using it because of the preview function.

I did learn a couple of neat codes written in DHTML and
put those in to a few webpages. I do worry about the
coding I use because of the variety of browsers that are
out there.

I try to keep to basics for now, because I'm a novice at
using the html.

If you're going to use elaborate codes, you should always try
to be aware of how they are going to act in various browsers.

Try to keep alternatives written in your code so that you
don't disable the page completely for users not viewing in
the same browser as you.

Have fun

I have heard a lot about XHTML but I myself have not gone to using it yet I am still using HTML. From a few different designers and coders I have heard that I should move to it but I still feel safe using HTML and php. I may move on to it in time but now I am fine with those two.