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Re: Why specify a DOCTYPE? Why validate?

for

From: Mark Pilgrim
Date: May 30, 2002 7:37AM

> Are you aware of the different displays in newer browsers that are
> linked to correct dtd use?

Yes, I've known about this for a while, and in fact just read the same thread you read on WebDesign-L and posted the same links on my site. This is what got me thinking about it in the first place.
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/05/29.html#quirks_mode

For instance, Apple has a short article on quirks mode on IE5/MacOSX, which lists two basic advantages to using a DOCTYPE and triggering compliant rendering mode:

1. fonts within tables will inherit font sizes properly
2. font-size: medium works like Navigator instead of like IE4

Presumably an existing site w/o DOCTYPE would have already compensated for these, so neither would have an adverse impact on accessibility.

> Newer
> machines and browsers or devices accessing information will be more
> able
> to deliver and render a page if the rules for the document are linked
> to
> the document.

I would love a specific example of this.

Again, *I* agree wholeheartedly that all of this stuff is important. I'm playing devil's advocate here because, frankly, the person I'm trying to convince is the devil. Sees no point in any of the W3C standards. Sees no point in lifting a finger to enhance accessibility. Perked up slightly when I said accessibility was the law now, but glazed over again when he learned that the law doesn't apply to him (which it doesn't).

I've been able to convince him that there *are* disabled people in the world and they *do* use the web.
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/Overview.html>;
I've demoed his own site for him in Lynx and JAWS. I've shown how most WAI guidelines have a *direct* impact on how well disabled users can use the web... but I'm sorry, specifying a DOCTYPE just doesn't. It just doesn't.

Prove me wrong. Please.

-Mark Pilgrim
http://diveintomark.org/


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