[thelist] Always use a DOCTYPE

Peter-Paul Koch gassinaumasis at hotmail.com
Tue Feb 26 21:12:01 CST 2002



>>     It is almost inconceivable that any major web browser -- or any minor
>>one, for that reason -- will cease to render html pages altogether because
>>they fail to include a doctype declaration (which is, of course, invalid
>>html).
>
>I can easily see this being the case when browsers get to the stage of
>rendering XML,

This is what I do not believe, which is why I don't mind leaving out
doctypes.

Regardless of any XML rules, a browser first and foremost exists to show web
pages to the end user.

If any new browser should *require* a doctype in a web page it would mean
that many, many pages wouldn't work in that browser. So the user of that new
browser gets confused, then irritated, then switches to another browser,
which is bad for business.

Therefore no browser vendor can afford to ignore old-school quirks HTML
without doctypes, with unclosed P's etc. It's incorrect, sure, rendering
problems may occur, sure, but the browser is bound to try its best to show
the page.

Old-fashioned HTML pages, even with hideous mistakes, will always remain
more or less visible until the end of the WWW.

ppk

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