What are the different doctypes?

Answer 1

DOCTYPEsThe DOCTYPE goes before the opening HTML tag at the top of the page and tells the browser whether the page contains HTML, XHTML, or a mix of both, so that it can correctly interpret the markup. There are three main DOCTYPEs that let the browser know what kind of markup it is dealing with:

1. Strict: This means that all markup codes within the page is XHTML-compliant.

2. Transitional: This means that markup is a mix of XHTML and deprecated HTML. Many sites are currently using this one so that their old HTML code will work in addition to the XHTML code they are adding.

3. Frameset: This is about the same as transitional except in this case frames, which are deprecated under XHTML, are okay, too.

Note: Because of the word wrapping format on this website, there is actually only a space between the EN" and "http:// instead of a new line.

It is important to specify a DOCTYPE. Browsers that don't see a DOCTYPE in the markup assume that the site page was coded for browsers developed long before Web standards.

Without a DOCTYPE, many browsers go into what is known as Quirks mode. Quirks mode is a backwards-compatibility feature supported by Mozilla, internet Explorer 6 for Windows, and Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh. In Quirks mode, the browser functions as if it has no knowledge of the modern DOM (document object model), and acts as though it has never heard of Web standards. This ability to switch modes depending on the DOCTYPE, or lack thereof, enables browsers to do the best possible job of interpreting the code of both standards-compliant and non-compliant sites, and thus may not interpret and display your webpages properly.

Note: For some weird reason, the DOCTYPE tag does not need to be closed with a backslash and DOCTYPE is always in caps. This entirely contradicts XHTML rules. Go figure.

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