NERD free explantion of Doc type importance required

[creospace]

Sorry i'm a nerd and I can't explain it in plain english, can someone else explain the importance of a document type regardless of compliancy?

Gary

[creospace]

X ref Marks post :

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8134&highlight=

[mattk]

I'll happily stick my neck out here and say that your pages will display fine even without the DOCTYPE being declared.

[Coding Monkey]

I'll happily stick my neck out here and say that your pages will display fine even without the DOCTYPE being declared.

Not ALWAYS the case in IE when using CSS. Not a theoretical, but a practical.

[mattk]

I'll happily stick my neck out here and say that your pages will display fine even without the DOCTYPE being declared.

Not ALWAYS the case in IE when using CSS. Not a theoretical, but a practical.
True - but I was trying to cross-reference Mark's post. His site looks fine to me!

[kyber]

It is used to provide guidance to the browser on what rules to follow in interpreting the rest of the document.

Whilst there is an organisation that establishes standard guidelines (syntax rules if you like) from time to time these are often open to interpretation.

Further more to reflect the evolution of the use of the web and the introduction of newer technologies new versions of the guidelines are issued from time to time and these usually try to resolve historical misunderstandings.

As the earlier development of the popular web browsers was something of a feature war, there are "features" in some of the more established browsers that address backwards compatibility so specific document standard references can trigger very different behaviours.

Ok?

Stuart

[Enigma121]

Ok, I'll have a go, switching to non-techno babble mode...

Doctype can be used to indicate to the browser which rules to apply when "drawing" a web page.

If you don't specify one, it will use a default set of rules to "draw" the page, which often contains bugs or issues.

Oh and also, using a Doctype can mean that disabled people are more able to access your page, increasing your audience and sales margins.

Was that ok? (forgive the sweeping generalisations folks).