Modularising HTML

XHTML is modular making it easy to combine with markup tags for things like vector graphics, multimedia, math, electronic commerce and more. Content providers will find it easier to produce content for a wide range of platforms, with better assurances as to how the content is rendered.

The modular design reflects the realization that a one-size-fits-all approach will no longer work in a world where browsers vary enormously in their capabilities. A browser in a cellphone can't offer the same experience as a top of the range multimedia desktop machine. The cellphone doesn't even have the memory to load the page designed for the desktop browser.

Designed for easy use in subsetting HTML, the following modules are strictly based upon HTML 4.0. Further work e.g. on forms will go beyond HTML 4.0

Here is the modules in the current draft:

• Applet — applet, param
• Block phrasal — address, blockquote, pre, h1-h6
• Block presentational — center, hr
• Block structural — div, p
• Inline phrasal — abbr, acronym, cite, code, dfn, em, kbd, q, samp, strong, var
• Inline presentational — b, basefont, big, font, i, s, small, strike, sub, sup, tt, u
• Inline structural — bdo, br, del, ins, span
• Linking — a, base, link
• Lists — dir, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, menu
• Simple forms — form, input, select, option, textarea
• Extended forms — button, fieldset, label, legend, optgroup, option, select, textarea
• Simple tables — table, td, th, tr
• Extended tables — caption, col, colgroup, tbody, tfoot, thead
• Images — img
• Image maps — area, map
• Objects — object, param
• Frames — frameset, frame, iframe, noframes
• Events — onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup
• Metadata — meta, title
• Scripts — noscript, script
• Styles — style element and attribute
• Structure — html, head, body