“XHTML is valid code” — this doesn’t make sense. XHTML is as (in-)valid as HTML5. You can’t have a <footer> in a <header> or vice versa, the spec explicitly forbids this. You can use “XHTML style” closing tags if you want, as I wrote in point 9 of 12 common problems with HTML5 back in 2009. Actually please read that entire article, you might find it illuminating :) After that check out the HTML5 Doctor article archive ;)

The HR property limits my control. The HR divide is very think and when I try to remove a border to make the divide thinner it won’t let me. Just to illustrate on your website you have nice thin borders, where are not HR tags, you simply but a border-top.

The only issue I have is that a HR tag would have good appropriate for my situation but considering is placed a double-lined space I think I would rather pass. If my HR tag was invisible it would have been ideal, but for styling I would not recommend it.

I look at things from a presentational point of view, I agree semantically it’s better, but presentationally it’s worse.

What XHTML coding practices do you feel are better?

XHTML is valid code. HTML5 uses the tags such as the which act the same way as DIV’s. In other words you can have a footer in the header and vice versa. The tags aren’t closed any more, which is confusing since such a deal was made back in university on closing tags.

@Angelo — <hr> is for a thematic break, not for adding a border, and <div class="br"> is semantically completely different. XHTML and HTML5 are basically equivalent to a browser, assuming you’re sending XHTML as text/html. What XHTML coding practices do you feel are better?
PS add the elements you forgot to escape if you reply, and I’ll edit your original comment

What I dislike about them is that they does not have many styling ‘real’ attributes.

The automatically be default add a border in what it feels is a box. Essentially it treats is like a box with no heights. When you try to have better control over it’s border it won’t let you. I now use a div with the class of BR, which does the job.

As for HTML5, I can’t understand what’s going on there. XHTML for better coding practices. HTML5 has somehow reverted back to prehistoric tags, that being the <i>, <b>. Why not introduce the <font> tag whilst you’re at it!

Whilst everybody has jumped on the bandwagon of HTML5 securing a future for it’s self. I am not too convinced it deserves such a lime light. XHTML was hardly given such exposure but it’s use was pretty rock solid! I’ve used xHTML in all my sites, now I am not too convince I should jump into HTML5.

It seems I’ve always incorrectly considered its semantic meaning to be “draw a line here” causing me to avoid its use altogether due to what I considered its presentational nature. Questions that always came to mind were “is a flourish to be considered a horizontal rule?” and “shouldn’t I just use a border-bottom instead?”.

Have you ever used <hr> when you weren’t separating this and that? And how should a screen reader convey a “horizontal rule”?

The <HR> element is a divider between sections of text;

– HTML 2.0 Specification

Horizontal rules may be used to indicate a change in topic.

– HTML 3.2 Specification

The hr element represents a paragraph-level thematic break

– HTML 5.0 Draft Specification

I’d say that was pretty consistent really, and not a re-purposing at all. It was only HTML 4 that was out of step, in defining it (badly) only in presentational terms.