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Bug 6630 - Optionalness of start tags when element is empty
Summary: Optionalness of start tags when element is empty
Status: VERIFIED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: pre-LC1 HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson) (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ian 'Hixie' Hickson
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: NoReply
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-02-27 16:45 UTC by Simon Pieters
Modified: 2010-10-04 13:55 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Simon Pieters 2009-02-27 16:45:52 UTC
The writing section should say that <body> may be omitted if body is empty.

<head> can't be legally empty but since serializers will likely use these rules it would be nice if it said that <head> could be omitted when it's empty.

(I guess the same could be argued about <html>...)

<colgroup> and <tbody> can't be omitted when the element is empty. It would be good if the spec said so explicitly.
Comment 1 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2009-04-01 00:18:55 UTC
You can't serialise an HTML document with an empty <html> element to text/html.

I didn't mention that you can omit the <head> element when the <title> is absent, because I fear confusing people who say "but it can't be empty!".

I did the rest.
Comment 2 Simon Pieters 2010-02-11 09:19:15 UTC
srcdoc documents can have empty head.
Comment 3 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2010-02-17 21:28:54 UTC
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Accepted
Change Description: see diff given below
Rationale: Concurred with reporter's comments.
Comment 4 contributor 2010-02-17 21:30:16 UTC
Checked in as WHATWG revision r4762.
Check-in comment: Allow <head> tag to be omitted when the <head> element is empty, now that it can be.
http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=4761&to=4762
Comment 5 Maciej Stachowiak 2010-03-14 13:17:00 UTC
This bug predates the HTML Working Group Decision Policy.

If you are satisfied with the resolution of this bug, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If
you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

This bug is now being moved to VERIFIED. Please respond within two weeks. If this bug is not closed, reopened or escalated within two weeks, it may be marked as NoReply and will no longer be considered a pending comment.