(Or, more accurately, why the DOCTYPE is no more broken than any other potential switching mechanism.)

In a recent article, “Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8“, Aaron Gustafson states that “the DOCTYPE [is] unsustainable as a switch for standards mode.”

His argument is based on the problem that many developers and authoring tools now make use of correct DOCTYPEs despite the fact that they are not in fact using standards-based, valid code. Therefore, you can not actually assume that a valid DOCTYPE actually indicates the presence of the type of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) code it claims.

Yes. This is true.

However, he then continues to state that a reasonable solution for this issue is to create yet another standards-based rendering switch. How is this logical?

Let’s review: the reason the current DOCTYPE switching mechanism is broken is because developers and authoring tools don’t use it correctly. The solution? Create a new switch which…can also be misused very easily.

…we’re really only left with one option for guaranteeing a site we build today will look as good and work as well in five years as it does today: define a list of browser versions that the site was built and tested on, and then require that browser makers implement a way to use legacy rendering and scripting engines to display the site as it was intended—well into the future. Aaron Gustafson

That’s a great idea, except for the minor flaw that there’s absolutely nothing stopping developers from misusing it in exactly the same way they have misused the DOCTYPE. Authoring tools may add an auto-generated list of default browsers, developers may cut and paste from other sites without understanding what they are using (much like some currently do) or (undoubtedly) new browsers will be developed which either ignore these switches or mis-interpret them.

I think that there’s a certain amount of sense in stating the exact state of browsers when your site was launched. I can see distinct value to being able to state that your site was developed and tested on Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8 and Opera 9.732. I can certainly understand that this can help future browsers understand how to interpret your older code: when Firefox 14 is released, it will (hypothetically) simply incorporate the rendering rules from version 3, apply them, and there you are: a perfectly rendering web site. Complete with all the limitations it had when it was built, and incapable of taking advantage of any superior changes in rendering that a well-authored and standards compliant site perhaps could have benefited from.

I do feel that it is a serious mistake to consider this to be any kind of long-term solution, however. In reality, it’s just another requirement which can be mis-used exactly like any other.

The solution (which is not, of course, a popular one) is actually attentive developers who are prepared to make changes to their sites when new browsers are released. Developing to standards is a great way to ensure minimum requirements for redevelopment: why should we add yet another feature to pander to developers who refuse to observe basic minimum standards of coding?