Should I be using HTML5?

I’ve been writing with XHTML for a long time. Should I learn, then switch to HTML5 instead? I understand it’s better.
Thanks.

I don’t see why it would hurt to learn HTML5. They’re both Markup Languages and very similar. XHTML being closer to XML as it’s an application of XML.

You’d probably pick HTML 5 very quickly if you already know XHTML. I think HTML5 is more widely used among front end web developers for it’s multimedia features. And it isn’t as strict in regards to standards adherence (error handling).

Usage statistics of HTML5 for websites

Usage statistics of XHTML for websites

As to the differences…

Give this article a read… it says it better that I could:

I’ve used HTML since HTML 1.0 back in the mid/late 1990’s
but I am not a web developer by trade, so I don’t have daily, professional experience with it.

Maybe an actual web developer can chime in with their thoughts.

Thank you very much for this information! I will look into the articles.

html5 seems to be the staple of web dev, so if that’s what you’re interested in then i don’t think you could really go wrong by learning it

OK, that’s what I thought. I guess I’m wondering now, though, if I should rewrite my websites in HTML5. That would be a lot of work. Or I could leave them as is. Not sure what to do. I like having “the best” of something.

i’m not much of a web dev so i don’t know the technicalities of it, but i’d say if your websites are functioning efficiently and effectively i wouldn’t worry about rewriting them. plus, if you were to show a possible employer your websites in xhtml and other websites in html5 it would show that you know how to do both

I agree with what @ecouch23 said. Especially if your sites are in “production” on a live server that people can access internally (intranet) or externally).

However, if you decide to learn HTML5, you could clone a copy of one of your existing sites and re-write in HTML5 in a development environment (not live or public facing) for learning purposes. Maybe it would help you see the differences in XHTML, HTML5 on a practical level as you work through it.

I don’t know how complicated or involved your existing sites are, so maybe it would be too much work for right now. You’d have to be the judge of that. I think it would be good practice though and give you a tangible project to work on.

Or as @ecouch23 said, just start a new project in HTML5.

There’s no right or wrong here, it’s up to you. :smiley:

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Thanks to both of you for excellent advice! I really appreciate it. :grinning:

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