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How does it differ and how is it similar to HTML and WML?

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How does it differ and how is it similar to HTML and WML?

XHTML Basic is very similar to HTML since it was derived from both HTML and XML. It has the same basic program structure as HTML with a head section and a body section. Many of the tags are the same eg. html, body, head, br, h1-h6, etc. The similarity of XHTML Basic to HTML is a plus for the language, since so many people know HTML. Another similarity between XHTML Basic and HTML is that both languages use the same type of cgi-bin programs, written in languages such as Perl, C++, or Java.

As for the differences with HTML, they lie mainly in the fact that XHTML Basic is a stripped down XHTML, which makes it basically a stripped down HTML. (XHTML is a merger of HTML and XML.) There are a lot of features that are allowed in HTML that are not allowed in XHTML Basic such as nested tables and frames.

As for WML, XHTML Basic has a lot of similarity with WML since XHTML Basic is based on XML as well as HTML. And, WML is derived from XML. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a root language to some of the currently used wireless languages. XML differs from WML or XHTML in that XML is a language for creating markup languages. XML allows document authors to create their own markup for virtually any type of information. Therefore, authors can use XML to create entirely new markup languages to describe specific types of data, including mathematical formulas, chemical formulas, music and recipes. A couple of the big areas of similarity with WML are input forms and special characters.

As for differences with WML, WML is a fuller language than XHTML Basic, and therefore has more instructions and capabilities. Also WML’s structure is based on cards that comprise a deck, and uses tags for card and wml, which is unlike XHTML Basic. The structure of using cards within decks was developed in WML in order to bring a deck down to a microbrowser, which contained several cards, where each card is one screen on a wireless device. This is a more efficient way to load several screens or pages at one time, when they are within one deck. XHTML Basic is based on the HTML type of structure where each screen seen on the wireless device is a separate XHTML Basic document, and each one selected has to be downloaded to the microbrowser separately.

But, in the WAP 2.0 Specification, XHTML Basic and WML were merged in the sense that WAP 2.0 micro browsers will recognize both XHTML Basic and WML. As for the coding, WML can be embedded in the XHTML Basic code.


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