Re: [author-guide] Character Entity References Chart

Robert J Burns wrote:
> [...] section 2.1 says that a Doctype is not 
> required by the draft while section 8.1 says that it is required by the 
> draft: both normative. [...]

They're referring to different DOM serialisations, so there's no 
contradiction.

Section 2.1 says "XHTML documents (XML documents using elements from the 
HTML namespace) that use the new features described in this 
specification and that are served over the wire (e.g. by HTTP) [...] may 
contain a DOCTYPE if desired, but this is not required to conform to 
this specification". (It doesn't specify any limits on what the doctype 
can contain.)

Section 8 is titled "The HTML syntax", so section 8.1 (which says there 
must be a (case-insensitive) "<!DOCTYPE HTML>") only applies to the HTML 
syntax.

So, for text/html you must use <!DOCTYPE HTML>. For XHTML5 you can use 
any doctype you want, or none at all.

-- 
Philip Taylor
pjt47@cam.ac.uk

Received on Tuesday, 22 July 2008 11:50:03 UTC