[whatwg] Doctype conformance requirements

Wed May 10 01:57:42 PDT 2006

Hi,

The conformance requirements section[1] states that:

>/HTML documents that use the new features described in this specification 
/>/and that are
/>/served over the wire (e.g. by HTTP) must be sent as text/html and must 
/>/start with the
/>/following DOCTYPE: <!DOCTYPE html>.
/
So, if I read this correctly, HTML documents that aren't served over the 
wire need not have a doctype?

If it was intended that all HTML documents must have a doctype, then I 
suggest something along the following lines instead:

   HTML documents that use the new features described in this specification 
must start with
   the following DOCTYPE: <!DOCTYPE html>. Such documents that are served 
over the
   wire (e.g. by HTTP) must be sent as text/html.

[1] http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#conformance

Regards,
Simon Pieters

Simon,

You do not read it correctly. "If A then B" does not imply "If not A then not B"
by rules of logic.
A correct conclusion is: "If a document is not send as text/html and it does
not start with the doctype: <!DOCTYPE html> it is not served over the wire".

Although your conclusion was not correct, I agree that the rephrasement does
cover the intention better. The section as it is stated now does not say whether
or not a document not served over the wire should have a doctype or not.

So +1

-jorgen