Re: Doctypes with "[" after public identifier

Leif Halvard Silli, Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:02:44 +0100:
> I think that my basic assumptions apply: the presence of "[]" when 
> there is no system identifier, does not trigger quirks mode, unless the 
> doctype triggers quirksmode also without the []. The only exception we 
> have found to this is the behaviour of Firefox w.r.t. 
> HTML4.0Transitional and the behavior or Opera when the "]" is failing.

I should have phrased the above paragraph differently: 

The presence of "[]", when there is no system identifier in a doctype, 
does not trigger _whether_ quirksmode _nor_ standards mode, unless the 
doctype triggers any of those modes also without the "[]". The only 
exceptions we have found to this are 1) that Firefox triggers lack of 
system identifier together with presence of "[]" as a non-quirks 
trigger w.r.t. HTML4.0Transitional and 2) the quirks triggering 
behavior or Opera when the closoing "]" is failing.

And I believe we can also conclude that "[]" also doesn't affect quirks 
vs standard when there *is* a system identifier. Plus that the presence 
of  SGML comments inside the DOCTYPE also doesn't affect quirks vs 
standards mode.

If we change this and make any of these into quirks triggers, then we 
are (A) making quirks mode into a feature  (B) we are creating a 
punishing system for people who are "disobedient" w.r.t. the doctype. 
In other words, we create, not a draconian error handling but a "drag" 
error handling system. Soft punishment. A gotcha system.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Friday, 19 February 2010 17:35:31 UTC