[whatwg] Using the HTML5 DOCTYPE as a new quirksmode switch

Mon Jun 18 22:01:22 PDT 2007

On Sat, 10 Mar 2007, Elliotte Harold wrote:
> 
> What are those of us who wish to use XML tools on our documents supposed 
> to use? We will need a real DTD at some point, to declare the entities 
> if nothing else. We will not be able to use <!DOCTYPE html>.

XML allows you to use, e.g.:

   <!DOCTYPE html SYSTEM "my.dtd">

This is an XML feature, though, unrelated to XHTML5.

> I know some browser-centric folks here just hate DTDs and schemas of any 
> kind; but we will need them, even if the browsers don't. We will create 
> and use them, even if there's no normative DTD in the spec.

That's entirely allowed by XML, indeed.

> One thing that's struck me in working with the spec over the last few 
> days is just how hard it is to follow the various content models, and 
> how much simpler most of them would be to read if they were described in 
> a RELAX NG schema or a DTD.

Having spoken to people who have actually used RELAX NG to describe them, 
I'm not sure that it really would be easier.

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