Re: Doctypes and the dialects of HTML 5

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:44:44 +0200, Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz> wrote:

> [...] if some user wants to use specific version of HTML for whatever
> reason, he or she should be able to very easily test whether his/her
> document is conforming to version of HTML used.

Easy. Select the version of HTML you want to test conformance with in the  
validator/conformance checker. This doesn't belong in HTML.

> - check document against rules for version which is specified in
> document (or use the latest version if version is unspecified)

Use latest by default, don't check which version is specified (because no  
version should be specified).

> - check document against the latest version

As said; default.

> - check document against any arbitrary chosen version

Yup, I agree.

> Version information could be just optional.

If it's even possible to include version information, it will only cause  
confusion and damage. What we need is a sound mechanism for extension and  
error correction, so future versions of HTML can be parsed and rendered in  
older UA's without breakage and thus allow future versions of HTML to be  
backward-compatible. I agree that may not be the situation today, but it  
should be a goal for this WG to make it so for tomorrow.

-- 
Asbjørn Ulsberg           -=|=-        asbjorn@ulsberg.no
«He's a loathsome offensive brute, yet I can't look away»

Received on Sunday, 1 April 2007 01:19:08 UTC