XHTML 2 language dumped in favor of HTML 5

From InfoWorld: Looking to focus on the budding -- and game-changing -- HTML 5 specification, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) said Thursday it plans to increase available resources for the effort by discontinuing further development of XHTML 2.

XHTML been an XML-based version of HTML and has been the subject of several W3C efforts ranging from XHTML 1.0 to XHTML Modularization and XHTML 2. The 2 version of the XHTML language was to offer capabilities for mobile systems and internationalization.

The XHTML 2 Working Group charter, scheduled to expire at the end of 2009, will not be renewed. By discontinuing the XHTML 2 working group and increasing resources in the HTML 5 Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate progress of HTML 5 and clarify the organization's position regarding the future HTML.

HTML 5, out in a draft form, focuses on Web application development and offers such capabilities as multimedia for browser-based applications, which could present strong competition to existing browser plug-in technologies such as Adobe Flash. "HTML 5 is the language of Web pages," said Ian Jacobs, W3C representative.

XHTML was spawned in the late 1990s, when some thought XML represented the future of formats on the Web, said Jacobs. Meanwhile, others stuck by HTML and formed WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) outside of W3C to continue work on HTML. But work on the HTML 5 specification development now is taking place at W3C, with W3C and WHATWG working in parallel.

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