Outdated Browsers

No, I am not a Cyber-Don Quixote, the last forgotten knight from the realm of the browser wars. Be happy with YourFavoriteBrower. That’s how the net goes: Agree on standards but do not regularize the way people implement it.

So, where is the problem among all this felicity? This page is written in plain XHTML 1.1, which is on the road since 2001. Alas, your browser sent me a header saying that it does not accept XHTML. What can I do then? Luckily many developers have wasted plenty of time to find workarounds. They found out that the chances are best if the header information is downgraded. Therefore —in particular for your browser— the XHTML 1.1 header has been replaced by an HTML 4.01 header. The contents are still XHTML 1.1 and I will not make any attempt to find plain HTML-workarounds. This is no clean solution (Indeed, it’s swinish.), but it works more often than not because most of the XHTML code is compatible with the old HTML code. But as time goes by, it will be more and more likely that an HTML-browser will fail to display my pages.

“But, do you really need XHTML? Why don’t you continue with the good old HTML?” you may ask. First, the stricter syntax yields more dependable results. And second, as a technical writer I am hungry for extensions that can handle graphs and formulae without detouring over bit-mapped graphics. XHTML feeds me.

What should you do? You may retain your old browser and keep your fingers crossed. Or you even might give a more recent browser a go.

                       

Best viewed with any standard conformant XHTML-browser.

Your browser is outdated and does not accept XHTML.

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