Re: Allow other doctypes

> Conforming HTML4 and XHTML1 docs will not become non-conforming HTML4 and
> XHTML1 docs. They'll remain conforming HTML4 and XHTML1 docs. They won't
> be conforming HTML5 docs because they aren't HTML5 docs in the first
> place. I don't see this as a problem.

Absolutely. Doctype is the only way I (as an author) know of to
indicate my intentions to a UA.

For example, if I want a document treated as HTML 4.01 Strict I would
indicate this with:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">


Likewise XHTML 1.0 Strict:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">


And I can indicate HTML5 using: <!DOCTYPE HTML>
(This looks to me like it will cause problems beyond HTML5 ... how are
we going to indicate documents are HTML5 or HTML6 or HTML* if they
only say "DOCTYPE HTML" ?)

UAs are going to honour this right? They are not going to start
treating anything with <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C ... (etc) as
HTML5, are they?


I am also curious how HTML5 documents are handled in UAs that don't
understand HTML5. This is my primary interest in "backwards
compatibility" because the day I start producing documents using HTML5
it will be the #1 issue to deal with. Mostly because we'll be waiting
years until browsers are updated (think of all those organisations
that mandate a corporate browser for all staff... they resist
upgrading! ;)

I intend to do some testing with HTML5 backwards compatibility soon
(so I guess I'll be flagging documents with "<!DOCTYPE HTML>") on
sites where there's no risk if things go horribly wrong (no different
to deciding to use application/xhtml+xml on a private site I think).
I'd encourage all authors to do this ... start using HTML5 today where
you can! That'll show us where the issues (for authors) are.

cheers
Ben

Received on Sunday, 17 June 2007 02:41:27 UTC