Difference between HTML and XML

Difference between HTML and XML ?

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is set of markup symbols added in file proposed for display on browser page. The markup tells Web browser how to show Web page's words and images for user. XML stands for extensible Markup Language. XML is designed to transport and store data. XML is important to know, and very easy to learn. In XML we need to define our own tag, there are no pre-defined tag like HTML.

They both have different goals. They are designed for different purposes. Some people think that xml is an advanced version of html and it has come to replace html. It is not the case. Both will be there as they are used for different purposes.

XML files are meant to hold data and data in an xml file is well described. If you look at an xml file you can say what it holds. For example if you find a number in an xml file you can find out easily what that number identifies, whether it is the number of products, or the price of a product etc. In html it is not the case.

HTML is used to display the data in a formatted way. You can apply styles and use different layouts to display the data in an html file. The data that is displayed in an html file could come from an xml file.

So to say in simple words, html displays the data and xml holds the data!

1) XML is not a replacement for HTML.
2) XML and HTML were designed with different goals.
3) XML was designed to describe data and to focus on what data is.
4) HTML was designed to display data and to focus on how data looks.
5) HTML is about displaying information, XML is about describing information

XHTML is HTML ala XML. If developing a new site, I would use XHTML, like this site is. There is more support for the latest browsers and it is extremely CSS friendly. There are two versions - XHTML strict and XHTML transitional. XHTML transitional is a more lenient version that supports many HTML tags. XHTML strict is composed entirely of div tags and CSS. The idea is that the layout and design of a site should be kept entirely separate from a site's content. Therefore, all that should appear on the page are div tags, span tags, and text. CSS defines the entire layout of everything.