Re: [CSS21] Test Suite

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004, Thomas Scholz wrote:
>>
>> You don't have to cope with lots of rendering modes. Just trigger
>> standards more. To do that, just make sure the first thing in the
>> document is an HTML4 Strict DOCTYPE.
>
> I can't. You too.
> <http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:Dg36FzGJF20J:ln.hixie.ch>

Actually that's a good example of the heuristic doing exactly what it was
designed to do.

The idea behind DOCTYPE-triggered rendering mode switching is to detect
legacy documents that were written expecting the rendering of old,
non-compliant UAs. How would _you_ do it? The requirements are that it be
determined before parsing begins (i.e. before the first element), and that
valid strict documents be rendered in strict mode and that legacy content
(cnn.com, microsoft.com, etc) be rendered in quirks mode.


> While I see the problem behind the idea of doctypeswitching, I really,
> really hate the solution. It never worked and it will never work.

Quite the contrary. It has issues, but it has worked better than every
other proposed solution could have.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Saturday, 24 July 2004 07:38:25 UTC