[wp-hackers] WordPress, web standards, and (X)HTML

[Sam Angove]

On 12/5/06, Computer Guru <computerguru at neosmart.net> wrote:
>
> Why would you settle for something less? I'm seeing this question being by
> those wanting a change, but again, if there is no real, tangible *HARM* in
> sending out 100% XHTML-valid content as HTML, and indeed, only good comes
> out of it compared to sending out HTML 4.01 (YUCK!), why the hell not?
>
> What's wrong with having 100% compliant XHTML, sending it as HTML, and
> waiting for the rest of the world to *actually support* XHTML mimetypes
> before changing the header?

Firstly, the message that started this thread linked to some posts
explaining why sending XHTML with the wrong content-type header is
evil. See, for example, "Sending XHTML as text/html Considered
Harmful":

   http://www.hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml

I'll also point out that the Neosmart blog front page is currently
neither valid nor well-formed.  If you were to change the
content-type, it wouldn't render. It also uses Prototype, some parts
of which use the innerHTML property and are therefore incompatible
with XHTML. You will *not* be able to flick a switch and change the
content-type without breaking the page -- exactly the problem that the
"Considered Harmful" piece warns about.

Secondly, just to turn this around on you, what are your reasons for
not wanting to use HTML 4.01 Strict? ("YUCK!" was not informative.)
Why do you think XHTML-as-text/html is better?