HTML5: it goes to ELEVEN

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2 pointsmathias5 comments

The slides note that the new HTML5 doctype works in current browsers. Does it trigger quirks mode in older browsers (e.g. pre-2010 releases)? If so, that essentially makes it a lot less usable that the slides would suggest.

By ‘current browsers’, I mean all browsers in use = A-grade browsers, including IE6. See http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/ and http://ejohn.org/blog/html5-doctype/#comment-296891

The HTML5 spec is written with backwards compatibility in mind, and the DOCTYPE is one of the examples. HTML5 specs current behavior and implementations. The DOCTYPE would’ve been different if browsers didn’t already support it.

I realize a lot of additional info is lost on people who are viewing the slides but couldn't attend the presentation, and am working on a blog post with some more explanations.

The blog post I talked about is now published and can be found here: http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/html5-levels

Oddly enough, the HTML5 doctype actually keeps most browsers in standards mode, including FF 3.x and IE 7+ - http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/ (also includes info on why you shouldn't use XHTML).

The HTML5 DOCTYPE triggers standards mode in IE6 as well.

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