Doctypes and why I never really gave a crap
Organization, Web Development December 10th. 2007, 12:03pmTo me, doctypes have always been somewhat of a hassle. I know when I write good code and I know how to fix errors the validator spits out at me. Other than that, my knowledge is limited. I usually just copy the header from my older documents and hope for the best. However, yesterday I had a change of heart and thanks to a simple google search, that led me to a great article, that brought me to a not so easily found page on w3. I was able to sigh in relief. I really don’t understand why the chart below isn’t easily accessible.
This chart is located about half way down the page.
According to my purple to blue link ratio, there are no links off the front page of w3 to this article. I find this rather inconvenient. Thankfully, the good folks at ALA know what’s up.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:31 am
Hi,
do you have a suggestion to make it more visible or accessible?
Many articles are published on the Library page and on the QA Weblog.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Oh and I have forgotten, if you do dtd w3c. The reference page comes up first.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:59 am
As I seldom visit w3 save for the validator… sections such as the ‘Library’ and ‘QA Weblog’ are virtually unknown to me. I’d assume this is true for others as well. I didn’t know what Q&A Weblog was until now and it doesn’t really seem like a likely place for doctypes to be hiding (to me at least).
Adding a link such as ‘Understanding Doctypes’ to the index page would certainly help people like me looking for the quick and dirty lowdown.
I would have never searched for ‘dtd w3c’ when searching for doctypes. I’m not sure how many others feel the same.
December 18th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
The doctype list is also linked from the validator FAQ, and from validation error messages related to the absence of doctype, doctype override etc.
Should the list also be given in full in the validator’s documentation?
December 18th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
A basic list with a link to the Recommended List couldn’t hurt.
A link in the footer of the validator to that list and the Choosing a DOCTYPE document would be even better.
Nice refreshed design on the validator by the way.