Is there a reason why these two standards are being developed separately? They seem to be solving the same problem but what are the differences and, if they are to remain separate, what roles are they expected to take in web development in the future?
XHTML is a combination of HTML and XML, whereas HTML5 is a version of HTML. XHTML has its own parsing requirements, while HTML does not have any specific requirements and uses its own. In XHTML, all tags, if they are opened, then they should be closed. HTML5 is less strict in this regard.
The development of XHTML 2.0 dragged on for many years because there was a large W3C committee in charge of the specification (too many people working on it, instead of a smaller group), and browser manufacturers/the web development community became uncomfortable with rejecting the backwards compatibility with HTML and ...
You can write HTML5 with XHTML 1.0 syntax, since HTML5 permits XML syntax and it explicitly allows an XHTML 1.0 doctype as “legacy doctype” in the XHTML syntax.
HTML and XHTML are both markup languages used to create web pages and applications. HTML and XHTML have some key differences that set them apart, but they also share some similarities. XHTML is an extended version of HTML, and both languages are used for developing web and Android-based applications.
Browser vendors care a great deal about backwards compatibility. The group speccing XHTML2 didn’t.
Note that XHTML2 isn’t solving all the same problems HTML5 is solving. HTML5 is much broader in scope than XHTML2. HTML5 covers processing models, JavaScript APIs, video, audio, application widgets, etc. but XHTML2 does not.
As for expected roles, representatives from top browser vendors participate in the HTML WG but not in the XHTML2 WG. On the other hand, people showing interest in the “Backplane” are participating in the XHTML2 WG.
See also David Baron’s post about how the W3C works.
This article only answers part of the question. It doesn't explain what the likely roles of the two standards will be in the future.:
X/HTML 5 Versus XHTML 2
As for the likely roles, people are saying that:
If browser vendors don't support XHTML 2 then I don't know what its role is. On the other hand XHTML 2 can be more-or-less converted to XHTML 1, e.g. using an XSL transformation, so it seems to me that it would be (much) easier for anyone to support, if they wanted to, than HTML 5 will be.
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