9287 2010-03-21 13:50:28 +0000 DOCTYPE "mostly useless" 2010-10-04 14:48:28 +0000 1 1 1 Unclassified HTML WG pre-LC1 HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson) unspecified PC All RESOLVED FIXED http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/syntax.html#the-doctype P3 normal --- 1 tj ian ian lmm mike public-html-admin public-html-wg-issue-tracking public-html-bugzilla oldest_to_newest 33739 0 tj 2010-03-21 13:50:28 +0000 In Section 8.1.1[1], the current published specification says: > A DOCTYPE is a mostly useless, but required, header. It then goes on to say: > DOCTYPEs are required for legacy reasons. When omitted, browsers tend to use a different rendering mode that is incompatible with some specifications. So, not useless then, or even mostly useless, as it's required to ensure that the most common UAs in the world (web browsers) behave something close to properly. Perhaps consider dropping the "mostly useless" comment to avoid encouraging skimmers to drop it. Perhaps "A DOCTYPE is a required header that primarily serves a legacy, but significant, purpose." (Separately: It's a header? That seems an odd term for it.) [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/syntax.html#the-doctype 33743 1 lmm 2010-03-21 21:59:04 +0000 See ISSUE-4 (http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/4), ACTION-93 http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/actions/93 and the corresponding Change Proposal http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Jan/0015.html and point 7 of the rationale thereof. 33744 2 tj 2010-03-22 09:20:00 +0000 The change Larry Masinter referenced would fix this issue if committed. I'm glad to see that change avoids using "of limited utility" as well, since that has many of the same problems as "mostly useless" (other than the latter's problem of tone). 34350 3 ian 2010-04-01 23:23:04 +0000 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. 34351 4 contributor 2010-04-01 23:24:15 +0000 Checked in as WHATWG revision r4940. Check-in comment: I guess useless is the wrong word, so commenting it out until I work out what the right word is... http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=4939&to=4940