Re: Why DOCTYPE Declarations for XHTML?

--The interoperability is supposed to stem from the verifiable validity of
the markup, i.e. that the content conforms to a certain type.  The *mere*
presence of a doctype declaration - as some inscrutable string - has no
bearing on the needed guarantee.  IMHO.--

In my humble opinion, I'd rather see a requirement on a doctype in XML-based
markup schemas for the web. I think it's important because we need to
establish a concrete way for a UA to distinguish between one type of markup
and another.

I think that there needs to be a freedom to be very different from HTML in
some aspects, as it has a very turbulent history as a "first of its kind"
technology. All suchs technologies are going to have little bugs that need
to be worked out, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. The object of XML /
XHTML should be IMHO to learn from HTML's mistakes, and move onward, not
repeat HTML's mistakes.

If a UA doesn't have anything more concrete than a doctype to varify that
the markup it's reading is indeed "a brave, new..." markup, then it may
confuse old with new.
Well, I'm just voicing an opinion here; just letting other people review it.
(ahhh, direct democracy...)

Daniel

Received on Saturday, 15 January 2000 14:12:50 UTC