How important is it to learn HTML before XHTML?

Is it okay to learn XHTML without having any HTML knowledge at all? Do you think learning to hand code HTML is necessary to be taught in a Web Design class rather than directly proceeding to tools such as Dreamweaver?

How important is it to learn HTML before XHTML?
I suggest that you ditch Dreamweaver, since such "WYSIWYG" only tend to cause problems, usually they also add alot of obsolate code to your documents.





Most websites designed with such applications, is poorly designed, in the forms of locked font-sizes; incorrect code; over-useage of frames; bad cross-platform/browser support.








There are many websites, which holds Tutorials/References for HTML and CSS, some of them include:


http://www.w3cschool.com/ - (tutorials/references)


http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ - (Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML)


http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/fir... - (Starting with HTML + CSS)





All you really need to create website's, is a copy of notepad, or notepad++ (But generally any Text-Editor would do). See also: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/s...





Learning XHTML isen't that important, the differance between html and xhtml is minimal, you can allways update your pages later, with less to no effort.





A serious Web-design class, wouldent even tuch the "WYSIWYG" editors. Its more then enough to know they exists, having that seid, alot of text-editors, have programming tools, which will speed up, (or even replace) many of the tasks, which you would otherwhise do manually.





Support for xhtml is poor, causing some browsers to render pages as text/html, instead of appcication/xml.
Reply:Yes, it's okay to learn XHTML because it goes hand-in-hand with HTML. Basically, learning XHTML will teach you HTML. The main difference is that XHTML is a "well-formed" version of HTML.





A tool like Dreamweaver almost promotes knowledge of XHTML. There are instances when the Design tab just won't do what you need it to. If the code is a mystery to you, you'll be stuck. It's always good to have a working knowledge (not a mastery per se) of the gears that make the clock tick.
Reply:It really depends on your purpose for learning web design. If it is simply to get some sites up of rhte family, the kids your car's etc. Stick with dreamweaver as its an easy option and saves learning code.





If you are wanting to get into the industry, set up on your own or just have an interest, ditch dreamweaver right now and open something as simple as notepad. There is no problem learning XHTML instead of HTML, in fact the 2 are pretty much interchangeable at the minute with the language Transitioning from one to the other. Personally I'd go for XHTML as it makes you create cleaner, more valid code.





Also once you ahve your head around the basics in XHTML or as soon as you want to start adding colour or layout to your design start looking at CSS.





If you want a couple of site there is this blog that is fairly new and has just started a series on learning HTML %26amp; CSS:


http://www.philbenwell.co.uk/blog





and another great site is:


http://www.htmldog.com