Difference between HTML , XHTML , DHTML

• HTML - HyperText Markup Language
  
• DHTML - Dynamic HyperText Markup Language
  
• XHTML - eXtended HyperText Markup Language

The first is the basic markup language used to create web pages. The current (and last) version is HTML 4.01, as specified by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).

The second is an unoffical name. It normally means HTML combined with JavaScript and CSS to provide greater response to user action (such as mousing over an image and triggering some event like the appearance of a menu).

The third is the future (and it's here now). XHTML 1.0 is HTML reformulated according to the rules of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). It's almost identical to HTML 4.01, but follows stricter rules, such as all tags being in lowercase, no missing end tags, all attributes in quotes, etc.

The reason we use XHTML in Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 (and in all recent foED books) is to help you build sites that adhere to the latest standards, so there is less chance of them becoming obsolete in the future. XHTML cannot do anything *extra*, but learning to build sites using the stricter rules that it follows means you are less likely to build sites that fall apart in new browsers.

Author - David Powers