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Dan
Dan

Reputation: 188

Technical reasons for using HTML5 doctype, instead of 4.01 strict

I'm working on a new website, and I want to support as many old browsers and operating systems as possible, as easily as possible. From what I've been reading, I know I'm better off avoiding quirks mode, so I need to decide on the best doctype. And everyone seems to be recommending the HTML5 version:

<!DOCTYPE html>

But according to this website, that also recommends the HTML5 version: https://hsivonen.fi/doctype/, that doctype will trigger quirks mode in Netscape 6, and maybe in Konqueror 3.2. But this one:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

won't trigger quirks mode in any browser listed on that website.

So my question is, is there any reason why I shouldn't use the 2nd doctype? I know those are really old browsers I'm concerned about, but I've seen recent statistics saying Netscape 6 is still in use, at least in Russia. And where I live, I still see a lot of people using Windows XP. So while I don't want to spend a lot of time supporting obsolete browsers, I'm wondering if there are any disadvantages to using the 2nd one, other than it's longer and looks complicated.

edit: All the answers and comments posted so far, have been really helpful. Now I'm starting to see that it's a tradeoff between: 1) being semantically correct, and 2) putting more of the very old browsers into standards mode, instead of quirks mode

In most cases #1 is probably more important, since not many people use those really old browsers. And if they do, they're probably used to things looking a little off. But if you're more concerned about things looking better in really old browsers, then #2 could be a better choice.

Anyway, I'll wait a while to see if anyone adds any more answers or comments. Thanks!

edit 2: All 3 answers were helpful. And 2 of them helped me understand specifically what I needed, so I selected one of those. But I would have selected both, if I could have.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 299

Answers (4)

Araldy
Araldy

Reputation: 88

There are several reasons:

  • Old browsers(those that doesnt support html5) wont be forever, one day the will be gone but those browsers that can support html5 will take long time in order to be a "old browser". So try to take advantages of all those new html5 feactures.

  • HTML5 has some new tags that are better for S.E.O

  • HTML5 Introduced new video codecs that will improve the audio and video experience.
  • HTML5 introduced a really drag and drop feature!

So what I suggest you is to use html5 and try do your best to make "old browsers" run your html5 website.

Upvotes: 1

Lakhan
Lakhan

Reputation: 13226

According to me main reason is that :

<!DOCTYPE html>

Html5 : Supports header, footer and section tag. And this tags are easily readable to google for "Search Engine Optimization". So, google takes it as important content on our page.

And for "4.01 strict" : These header, footer and section tags are not supported.

Upvotes: 0

Spooler
Spooler

Reputation: 232

The only reason I can think of is that if you want or need to use HTML 5 in the future you'll be able to with more ease already doing everything in HTML 5.

And browsers should have no problem dealing with the fact that it's strict 4.01 and will display it just as if it didn't have the doctype anyways.

Basically from a "what the page looks like" point of view your strict 4.01 will look the same in a html 5 doctype as it will in a strict.

Having said that, it does depend on your HTML there are certain times that you'll need to do it but chances are it shouldn't matter

Really good link for further info on doctype declarations: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/html5/markup/the-doctype-tag-and-its-effect-on-page-rendering.html#fbid=JCm-bKCUNc6

Upvotes: 1

Leo Muller
Leo Muller

Reputation: 1483

I would just use the , but not use any HTML 5 specific features, I think that would work nicely. Older browsers try to render the page as good as they can. In any case, if you DO want to use HTML 5 features, you can always see if they are available in your javascript code or use a framework such as modernizr.

Upvotes: 0

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