[Wsuug] IE 8 again....

[Jon Zuck]

Especially since the Jonathan Katz, the first commenter, recently published
an article in ALA, albeit non-technical.

http://lucidplot.com/2007/06/12/robot/

Perhaps they were writing loosely, but I'm realizing that the Doctypes
switching mechanism apparently isn't well-understood even by developers. I
suspect most find a Doctype that works for them by triggering Standards mode
and then the matter goes to rest as far as they're concerned.

The technicalities of Doctype-switching to trigger rendering modes has
probably been a bit more up front in my mind, since I rarely have a chance
to choose a Doctype, and all our sites here use Doctypes that trigger
Quirks. I have to be aware that Strict Doctypes  can trigger Quirks
(depending), and Transitional Doctypes can trigger Standards Mode
(depending).

I myself have had a long preference for Transitional Doctypes ... the
somewhat looser syntax makes long-term maintenance issues much easier for
the coders that will be handling it down the road, possibly with less
CSS/HTML expertise. (Yes Virginia, you can work in a Standards rendering
mode with a Transitional Doctype...)

Also important to note is that Transitional Doctypes do not conflict in ANY
web with coding for "standards" ... the published versions of (X)HTML,
whether Transitional, Strict, or Frameset, are *all *standards, and
intelligent coding within the syntax of that or any W3C spec with a view
toward accessibility, cross-platform compatibility, and semantic clarity, is
the heart of what "Web Standards" is about.

It's time everyone knew that Strict Doctypes don't mean Standard rendering
mode (necessarily) nor coding for "standards" (necessarily).

And given the confusion that still seems to be out there regarding this, I
really think Microsoft's idea of doing away with Doctype switching might be
a really good thing.

If anyone doesn't have this page bookmarked, this is absolutely the best
information on the Web regarding Doctype switching, serving pages as XHTML,
and so forth. IMHO, it's probably the single most informative page on
advanced (X)HTML/CSS issues on the Web. I"ve relied on it for years:

http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/

Jon

tOn Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 8:28 AM, Andrew Jaswa <ajaswa at gmail.com> wrote:

> That is interesting, I hadn't noticed the comments. Makes you wonder
> sometimes about people in our field...
>
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Jon Zuck <jz at frimmin.com> wrote:
> > Interesting.  The only scary thing is that both of the first two
> commenters
> > seem to be rather ignorant about DOCTYPE switching... they equip
> "Strict"
> > doctypes with Standards mode... Many "Transitional" DOCTYPES also
> trigger
> > Standards mode.
> >
> > I really wish people would stop confusing Strict and Standards. Ugh!
> >
> > jon
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Andrew Jaswa <ajaswa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > For those of you who don't read WsSP...
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/02/24/wasp-round-table-ie8s-default-version-targeting-behavior/
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Wsuug mailing list
> > > Wsuug at list.wsuug.org
> > > http://www.thelinuxlink.net/mailman/listinfo/wsuug
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jon
> >
> > http://www.frimmin.com
> > http://www.wildwebweaving.com
> > http://esperantohr.wordpress.com/
> >
> > "Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest. For your
> separation
> > from God is the hardest work in the world."
> >                    ~Hafiz
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >  Wsuug mailing list
> >  Wsuug at list.wsuug.org
> >  http://www.thelinuxlink.net/mailman/listinfo/wsuug
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
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>



-- 
Jon

http://www.frimmin.com
http://www.wildwebweaving.com
http://esperantohr.wordpress.com/

"Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest. For your separation
from God is the hardest work in the world."
                  ~Hafiz
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