[wp-trac] Re: [WordPress Trac] #3406: Use HTML4 instead of XHTML1

[WordPress Trac]

#3406: Use HTML4 instead of XHTML1
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 Reporter:  TedNelson  |        Owner:  anonymous
     Type:  defect     |       Status:  closed   
 Priority:  normal     |    Milestone:           
Component:  Template   |      Version:           
 Severity:  normal     |   Resolution:  wontfix  
 Keywords:             |  
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Comment (by lachlanhunt):

 The problem is that WordPress does not use a proper XML pipeline to ensure
 that the content is well-formed.  It uses string-based processing to
 concatenate strings of markup together, regexes to find and replace all
 sorts of things, and other nasty little hacks all over the place.  So much
 so, that even claiming that WordPress supports XHTML is absolutely bogus -
 it doesn't and it shouldn't pretend to.

 The reality is, even if all browsers started supporting
 application/xhtml+xml tomorrow and didn't have any major issues with it
 (like they currently do), it would be impractical to change the MIME type
 of WordPress from text/html because it only takes one small error for the
 result to be fatal.  I know there are many authors out there that are
 diligent enough to ensure their own markup is well formed, but for the
 average user, the tool must do that for them.

 It's such a [http://hsivonen.iki.fi/producing-xml/ fundamental flaw with
 the way WordPress has been built], the only sane choice is to give up the
 myth that WordPress is even capable of producing XHTML; it's a tag-soup
 CMS only.  However, I don't expect this bug to be fixed, I knew it would
 never be before it was even filed.

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3406#comment:9>
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