Re: The argument for |bugmode| (was Re: If we have versioning, it should be in an attribute, not the doctype)

Chris Wilson wrote:

> I want to explicitly state - I neither asked for nor want the HTML WG to
specify a "bugmode" attribute in HTML. I expect bugward-compatibility
markers to be IE-proprietary, and I hope we can get rid of them over
time. I DO want the HTML WG to recognize that they cannot be ripped out
today (or for the next several years).

I am now completely at a loss as to where this is going.

If the expectation is that bugward-compatibility markers will be 
browser-proprietary, what is the benefit then of your proposal that the 
HTML5 doctype be <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "html5">?  [1]

As I'm interpreting what I've read (and I reserve the right to be in 
error), the browser will support proprietary markers of whatever form to 
tell the browser to what degree of "improved standards compliance" [1] 
the author of a given page is opting into and thus how to render the page.

If that is true, what information is the browser going to get from the 
proposed DOCTYPE beyond:

1) A trigger to render the page in the current general "standards mode".
2) A trigger that this page is coded in HTML5 so the browser should look 
for any bugward-compatibility markers that are in the code and adjust 
the rendering of the page accordingly.

And can't that also be accomplished by having the WHATWG proposed 
<!DOCTYPE html> act as:

1) A trigger to render the page in the current general "standards mode".
2) A trigger that this page is coded in HTML5 or better so the browser 
should look for any bugward-compatibility markers that are in the code 
and adjust the rendering of the page accordingly.

My viewpoint is that if there is a commitment being made now that in 
HTML5+ pages IE will be looking for and relying on markers to tell it 
how to render the page, the presence of version information in the 
DOCTYPE is superfluous beyond knowing that the HTML version is 5 or 
greater.  The markers perform the same function regardless of the lack 
of versioning in the DOCTYPE.

[1]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007Apr/1071.html

-- 
Bill Mason
Accessible Internet
w3c@accessibleinter.net
http://accessibleinter.net/

Received on Wednesday, 18 April 2007 18:35:55 UTC