Most prefered doctype? xHTML strict! ?

I see quite a few themes and code plugins on here that have these CSS3 gradients that do not work in IE.

I’m just curious as a buyer is xHTML strict! prefered over HTML5 & CSS3 ?

Thanks for your time, Nick.

CSS is unrelated to doc type. CSS3 works the same whether its an XHTML STRICT doc or an HTML5 doc. Support for certain CSS properties is browser-dependent. The most important thing is whether or not the HTML code validates, as there is no real great difference between the two doc types. HTML is still HTML . In fact, if you just change the doc type (one line at the very top), of an XHTML STRICT document then it technically becomes an HTML5 document (read this). As for things like certain CSS properties not working in IE, that’s beef with Microsoft that nothing can really be done about.

With that said, I prefer working with HTML5 because it’s requirements for validation are more relaxed and reasonable. For example, you don’t have to (but still are free to) do silly things like <input… required=”required” /> (you can just do <input… required>). Plus, it’s the “wave of the future” with its new semantic tags and browser support for some “HTML5” features (form validation, video, canvas) that we don’t see in use very much right now will grow over the years.