<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 10, 2007, at 4:37 PM, Matthew Ratzloff wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">The seem to serve the purpose.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>If there are two HTML 5 specifications,</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">browser makers can come together to decide which one to support by default</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">when no DOCTYPE is present.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Developers who would prefer the alternate</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">standard could use the appropriate DOCTYPE.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Browsers render in quirksmode by default. That's been established. At this point WHATWG has already rejected DTDs in DOCTYPE and seems pretty set on not including it. I myself would rather have some type of versioning (DTD or otherwise) in the DOCTYPE. All I've heard from WHATWG is that they don't really even like the DOCTYPE. If browsers didn't use DOCTYPE as the standards mode switch, DOCTYPE probably wouldn't even be in WHATWG's HTML 5.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>If there is no versioning system, there is no way to specify an "alternate standard."</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I'm sure most people have heard the saying "Choose your battles." Fighting for DTDs or some other type of versioning in the DOCTYPE in WHATWG's spec is not a fight that can be won as far as I can tell. Having some method to tell people what spec an author is using can be won.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>----------------------------------------------------------</DIV><DIV>Robert <<A href="http://robertdot.org">http://robertdot.org</A>></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>