What is the difference between .htm and .html?

[emm]

Is there any difference between the .htm and .html extensions? Is there any advantage of using one over the other?
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“You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view…”
Digital Bangladesh

[quantum]

There is really no difference between .htm and .html extension. As a matter of fact you can use extension for your file name. Including .emm. And the browser will show the page so long as the code inside the file are okay. Browsers do not look for the file extension to see what kind of file it is and how to render it. Instead it looks at the header information sent by the file(which is usually invisible to you) and decides on whether to show it on the browser or use the media player or prompt a download window.

However,

Quote:

The one situation in which there may be a difference between the two extensions is that of a server's default filenames. When a URL that does not specify a filename is requested from a server, such as [http://www.domain.dom/dirname/,] the server returns a file from the requested URL that matches a default filename. Examples of common default filenames include "index.html," "index.htm," "welcome.html," "welcome.htm," "default.html," "default.htm," etc. However, an administrator can make the server's default filename anything he/she so desires. In the case of a default file, the author's filename must be exactly the same as the server's default filename. In other words, if your server is configured to use "index.html" as the default filename, your file must be named "index.html" and not "index.htm."

That about sums it up.
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[emm]

That makes sense. I was wondering how do the browsers keep track of all the new languages that come out every six month.
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“You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view…”
Digital Bangladesh

[hasnut]

In the DOS days ther are 8.3 long filenames. People started designing web pages in Windows 3.11 but couldn't save their files as .html, so they decided on .htm

Also, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and other html editors use default.htm instead of index.html, saving files with the .htm extension.

Quote:

I was wondering how do the browsers keep track of all the new languages that come out every six month.

It does not matter what file extension you use, as long as your Web server sends out the content-type header with "text/html".
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Sarder Hasnut
MCSD, CIW A

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[emm]

I did not know that. Thank you Hasnut.
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“You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view…”
Digital Bangladesh