Re: Quirks Mode

On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:08:05 -0700, Brad Kemper <brkemper@comcast.net>  
wrote:
> On Mar 30, 2008, at 11:29 AM, Anne van Kesteren wrote:
>> FWIW, at some point I'd like to see the affect of quirks mode be  
>> defined in CSS. HTML 5 already defines when you enter "quirks mode",  
>> "limited quirks mode" (also known as almost standards mode), and "no  
>> quirks mode" (also known as standards mode). It makes sense for other  
>> specifications where quirks are necessary for Web compatibility to  
>> define those.
>
> Agreed. I hope it can get into the charter somewhere to recognize the  
> millions of pages out there that will not ever be re-authored (at least  
> any time soon), but could at least be restyled (whole sites at a time)  
> by attaching new style sheets to them.

For that to happen someone needs to be willing to work on it.


> [...]
>
> I couldn't find anything in the CSS specs about quirks mode or the  
> effect of the DOCTYPE. Maybe someone can point it out to me?

CSS specifications stay silent on this issue.


> I think it would be helpful to have even a sentence or two that says  
> that a lack of DOCTYPE or a DOCTYPE lower than 4.0 can cause differences  
> of how some properties behave (such as widths in IE or table heights in  
> other UAs), but does not disable other, newer properties that the UA can  
> render in other modes.

In order for it to be helpful it would have to define exactly what the  
quirks are and probably defer how they are triggered to the HTML5  
specification. Without solid definitions and a test suite you don't really  
have an argument against implementors.


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
<http://annevankesteren.nl/>
<http://www.opera.com/>

Received on Monday, 31 March 2008 15:27:39 UTC