HTML is the most commonly used programming language for the Internet for static web pages and the output of dynamically created web pages. The Hyper Text Markup language was written specifically for the Internet for websites to display information for Internet users around the world.

XHTML is extremely similar but follows the rules of XML. The main differences between HTML and XHTML is the case-sensitivity, the need to use closing tags for all tags, the need to use quotes around all attribute values and that all attributes must be in lowercase as XML requires. Special characters between tags need to be replaced with its code equivalent. Declaring the correct doctype (first line in source code) and language (in meta tag in the head of the source code) is required.

XHTML is used to be compatible with XML programming. Following the rules now would make it possible to include XML programming in the future. It is not difficult to change HTML pages to XHTML, but it can be time-consuming. Finding all line breaks and images to include closing tags, converting any uppercase to lowercase and any other incompatibility can be a nuisance. Using a find and replace program can allow you to edit your code faster, but you still have to reupload all those changes. It is recommended that programmers try to remember these rules to comply with W3C recommendations, so the web pages appear correctly in most browsers.

When should you be concerned with XHTML instead of just plain HTML? If the website will contain a catalog of items as in an ecommerce site, the site accesses a database, the site accesses information from another source that uses a different programming language or the site is expected to grow and exist for many years. XHTML is used when referring to XML files used for RSS feeds, some music players, some image galleries and many more applications.

Dynamic HTML is a combination of technologies to make Web pages dynamic. To most people, Dynamic HTML means a combination of HTML 4.0, Style Sheets and JavaScript. It is commonly used to describe advanced JavaScript.

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