html-author/Overview.html 1.24 Describing the purpose of the DOCTYPE

Describing the purpose of the DOCTYPE

2 Getting Started with HTML 5
http://people.w3.org/mike/diffs/html5/html-author/Overview.1.24.html#getting-started-with-html-5
2.1 A Basic Document
http://people.w3.org/mike/diffs/html5/html-author/Overview.1.24.html#a-basic-document

http://people.w3.org/mike/diffs/html5/html-author/Overview.diff.html
http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/html-author/Overview.html?r1=1.23&r2=1.24&f=h

===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/public/html5/html-author/Overview.html,v
retrieving revision 1.23
retrieving revision 1.24
diff -u -d -r1.23 -r1.24
--- Overview.html 29 Jan 2009 15:55:47 -0000 1.23
+++ Overview.html 29 Jan 2009 16:37:43 -0000 1.24
@@ -197,8 +197,12 @@
   </div>
   
   <p>It's good practice to get in the habit of always typing that as the
-     first line in all new HTML documents you create. This line is used
-     to indicate that the document is an HTML 5 document</p>
+     first line in all new HTML documents you create, so that it never
+     gets forgotten.  The DOCTYPE is a remnant from the early days of the
+     web. For historical reasons, it is needed to ensure that web browsers
+     interpret the document correctly, rather than using a special
+     compatibility mode designed to replicate the behaviour of older
+     browsers, which is intended for handling legacy HTML content.</p>
 
   <p></p>
 

Index: Overview.src.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/public/html5/html-author/Overview.src.html,v
retrieving revision 1.24
retrieving revision 1.25
diff -u -d -r1.24 -r1.25
--- Overview.src.html 29 Jan 2009 15:54:12 -0000 1.24
+++ Overview.src.html 29 Jan 2009 16:37:43 -0000 1.25
@@ -177,8 +177,12 @@
   </div>
   
   <p>It's good practice to get in the habit of always typing that as the
-     first line in all new HTML documents you create. This line is used
-     to indicate that the document is an HTML 5 document</p>
+     first line in all new HTML documents you create, so that it never
+     gets forgotten.  The DOCTYPE is a remnant from the early days of the
+     web. For historical reasons, it is needed to ensure that web browsers
+     interpret the document correctly, rather than using a special
+     compatibility mode designed to replicate the behaviour of older
+     browsers, which is intended for handling legacy HTML content.</p>
 
   <p></p>

Received on Thursday, 29 January 2009 16:39:01 UTC