Brandon Frohs

Most every web developer has asked himself (or herself) this question at least once. While some applications only need one method of parsing, many should support at least two. There is rarely a need to include support for more than two methods on any single part of an application though.

In this article, several parsing techniques will be covered, including Textile, BBCode, and HTML. WYSIWYG editors will also be discussed. Pros and Cons of each technique will be examined to provide you with facts and my own opinion.

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After much thought, I’ve decided to code the main theme of Consummo in (X)HTML5. Although I have not decided which route I’m going to take when it comes to (X)HTML5 (HTML5 or XHTML5), I am positive I will be using (X)HTML5. HTML 4.01 is too unstructured for my taste, XHTML 1.0 is old, and XHTML 2.0 isn’t friendly at all (to coders or visitors). (X)HTML5 seems like the proper choice, especially since I have been active in the development of it (not so much recently, but I’m getting back into the game slowly). If you want to learn more about (X)HTML5, check out the differences between HTML 4 and 5.

Note

Although Consummo will be released with an (X)HTML5 theme by default, I will release an XHTML 1.0 theme as well (and possibly even an HTML 4.01 theme). It won’t come out right away of course, but I will get around to it.

I remember when I first learned of the work being done on (X)HTML5. I had mixed emotions toward the entire project. Although I’ve been a fan of Firefox, Opera, and Apple for a long time, I don’t agree with the direction they’re going with (X)HTML5. Along with the creation of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (or WHATWG) came the return of the slow progression of HTML.

As a designer/developer, I believe (X)HTML5 is a step backward in the development of the primary web language. One of the major reasons for the creation of (X)HTML5 was the fact that many of the websites on the WWW didn’t switch to well-formed XHTML. They blame website owners, but I blame the major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari). It may just be a pet peeve, but I’ve always used well-formed HTML. Even before I knew XHTML existed, I was putting quotes around all of my attributes. I’ve also always used lowercase tag and attribute names. When I began using XHTML, closing empty tags made perfect sense. What doesn’t make sense is why others don’t follow suit. And I just can’t get myself to believe that browsers refuse to conform to a standard that’s been around for years.

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