Re: [author-guide] Describing the Syntax

On 6/12/08, Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au> wrote:
>
>  Hi all,
>   I've finally found the time to resume work on the Web Developer's Guide to
> HTML 5.  At this stage, I'm actively editing the document syntax section and
> over the past couple of weeks I've added sections describing the Document
> Representation and the Syntax.
>
>  http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/#document
>  http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/#syntax
>
>  The syntax section is currently in a state of flux as it is being actively
> edited.  However, feedback on those sections will be very much appreciated.

A suggestion for <http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/#xhtml>.

There needs to be an XHTML syntax example that triggers full standards
mode with text/html. Otherwise, people wanting to use html-compatible
XHTML syntax will copy the example as a template and end up having
quirks mode trouble.

I see this type of thing on forums all the time. People author a whole
site in quirks mode without knowing it and end up having trouble
getting things to look right across browsers.

It is absolutely important that authors begin with full standards mode
unless they specifically know that they want to use quirks mode.

I understand there's a doctype section, and that HTML5 examples have
<!DOCTYPE html> in them, but we need to save those that heard they
should use XHTML and blindly copy.

Another example is w3schools. They don't touch on the doctype
switching for HTML and their examples don't trigger standards mode.
For XHTML, they mention the need for a doctype, but they don't mention
the importance of it in text/html and doctype switching etc.

I don't think you can stress enough about the doctype switching issue.

I would even go as far as telling authors to actively check
document.compatMode while they develop.

-- 
Michael

Received on Friday, 13 June 2008 03:48:29 UTC