Re: HTML+ Comments

Dave_Raggett (dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com)
Wed, 21 Jul 93 11:31:43 BST


Tony Sanders replies to my summary of HTML+ issues:

>> 2) Backwards compatibility with HTML
>>
>> Two ideas:
>>
>> a) Include <CITE>, <MENU> and <B> etc. in the DTD as
>> deprecated elements for backwards compatibility
>>
>> b) Don't include them as part of the HTML+ standard
>> but suggest that browser writers provide continued
>> support for them for for backwards compatibility.

> Won't browsers be able to tell what DTD the document is using via the
> <!DOCTYPE> field? If so then dropping them from the spec is probably
> the best course of action.

Yes, in theory, but there will be large amounts of manually created HTML
which omits this element.

I think that (b) keeps the spec clean, while providing practical advice
to browser writers, so that browsers will be able to work with both
formats or a mixture of the two, at least for the short term.

Dave