I'm not asking this in a noob way, but rather a rational way. What purpose does the doctype serve other then specifying what version of html you are using? Why did the standards go this way; with this approach? Why didn't the standards just add a version attribute to the html element?
Code: Select all
<html version="5">
<head>
...
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
<html>
Every new version of html would just require that you change the number in the version attribute. Why did the standard go this way:
Code: Select all
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The doctype for html 5 is so ambiguous. The doctype is html? Which version of html? They over-simplified IMO. It should have been:
Other wise, what would html 6's doctype look like? If they just added a number to the doctype, the next version of html would be more consistent:
But why even have a doctype? Why not just a version attribute, at least then why would have a/another reason for the html tags being wrapped around the entire document.
So really, what's the rational behind the doctype in the first place? Does anyone here on these forums know? Could anyone tell me?
Thanks for reading.