Especially since the Jonathan Katz, the first commenter, recently published an article in ALA, albeit non-technical.<br><br><a href="http://lucidplot.com/2007/06/12/robot/">http://lucidplot.com/2007/06/12/robot/</a><br><br>
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. <br>
<br>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).<br>
<br>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...)<br>
<br>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 <b>all </b>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. <br>
<br>It's time everyone knew that Strict Doctypes don't mean Standard rendering mode (necessarily) nor coding for "standards" (necessarily).<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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:<br>
<br><a href="http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/">http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/</a><br><br>Jon<br><br>tOn Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 8:28 AM, Andrew Jaswa <<a href="mailto:ajaswa@gmail.com">ajaswa@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">That is interesting, I hadn't noticed the comments. Makes you wonder<br>
sometimes about people in our field...<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 3:27 PM, Jon Zuck <<a href="mailto:jz@frimmin.com">jz@frimmin.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Interesting. The only scary thing is that both of the first two commenters<br>
> seem to be rather ignorant about DOCTYPE switching... they equip "Strict"<br>
> doctypes with Standards mode... Many "Transitional" DOCTYPES also trigger<br>
> Standards mode.<br>
><br>
> I really wish people would stop confusing Strict and Standards. Ugh!<br>
><br>
> jon<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Andrew Jaswa <<a href="mailto:ajaswa@gmail.com">ajaswa@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
> ><br>
> > For those of you who don't read WsSP...<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> <a href="http://www.webstandards.org/2008/02/24/wasp-round-table-ie8s-default-version-targeting-behavior/" target="_blank">http://www.webstandards.org/2008/02/24/wasp-round-table-ie8s-default-version-targeting-behavior/</a><br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
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> ><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Jon<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.frimmin.com" target="_blank">http://www.frimmin.com</a><br>
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><br>
> "Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest. For your separation<br>
> from God is the hardest work in the world."<br>
> ~Hafiz<br>
><br>
><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jon <br><br><a href="http://www.frimmin.com">http://www.frimmin.com</a><br><a href="http://www.wildwebweaving.com">http://www.wildwebweaving.com</a><br><a href="http://esperantohr.wordpress.com/">http://esperantohr.wordpress.com/</a><br>
<br>"Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest. For your separation from God is the hardest work in the world."<br> ~Hafiz<br><br>