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Strict or Transitional?

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 3:45 am
by Ree
which of the two doctypes is actually recommended to use? which one do you use and why? i'm determining which one i should start with. i wouldn't want learning 'bad habits' with transitional and have to move to strict later (which seems to involve a bit of re-learning). or maybe i can stick with transitional, forget strict and be fine? tell your opinion.

i'm leaning towards strict more, but you could change my opinion. :)

Re: Strict or Transitional?

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:00 am
by Roja
Ree wrote:which of the two doctypes is actually recommended to use? which one do you use and why? i'm determining which one i should start with. i wouldn't want learning 'bad habits' with transitional and have to move to strict later (which seems to involve a bit of re-learning). or maybe i can stick with transitional, forget strict and be fine? tell your opinion.

i'm leaning towards strict more, but you could change my opinion. :)
Well, that depends on which version, could be either xhtml or html. It also depends on what you want to accomplish.

Here's my rule of thumb.. I create my layout, and my design. Then I start validating towards html4.01-transitional. Thats my "lowest requirements". Frankly, if the design can't be done and be 100% compliant with 4-transitional, its *not* a webpage, and its *not* an effective design.

If its a site I want to impress with, or that I see an easy path to compliance for it, I try to take it to html4.01-strict.

As a general statement, the problems with xhtml (specifically the problems with its content-type and internet explorer) make it more trouble than it is worth. A html4.01-strict page is generally very accessible across many browsers, and is easy to maintain.

I've done a handful of xhtml pages and sites, for clients that specifically wanted them, or for projects where I wanted to accomplish it.

However, sometimes I want to do some funky effects, layouts, or whatever, and I can't find an easy way to do it in strict. Then I decide between the functionality and the compliance. Usually functionality wins out. :)

So, to directly answer your question - strict if you can, trans if you can't.