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

Tue Mar 13 09:04:39 PDT 2007

I'm not sure how this is a backwards compatibility issue. My 
understanding is that user agents aren't actually parsing information 
from the doctype, just checking for its existence. The only applications 
that should break are validators, which would need to be updated anyway.

I ran some quick (and highly unscientific tests) on ff1.5 and ie7 (both 
pc) with a real html 4 doctype, <!DOCTYPE html>, and <!DOCTYPE html5> 
(both with and without a space before the 5), and nothing broke in terms 
of rendering or function.

Please let me know if there's something I'm missing here.

Thanks,
Colin Lieberman
> On 13/03/2007 16:51, Colin Lieberman wrote:
>> At the risk of killing beautiful simplicity, can we consider amending 
>> this to
>>
>> <!DOCTYPE html5>
>>
>> or something similar? The omission of a version number feels like 
>> playing with fire to me.
>
> Hum to say the least. One of the goals of the WHAT-WG is the
> preservation of backwards compatibility, right ?
>
> </Daniel>
>