Frontpage 2002 No Doctype statement

[AndyD]

Hi all, can anyone advise me why Frontpage 2002 does not insert a doctype statement at the top of a page.?

Can I insert one myself and if so which doctype would frontpage use?

I realise that it may not conform to wc3 standards but if one where to use a doctype statment what would it be?

I dont want to get into the Frontpage Dreamwearver, handcoder disucssion here if possible, Frontpage is what I use for better or worse
;)

Regards
AndyD

[Mhtml]

Why u usin' frontpage? Dreamweaver is sooo much.... joke;)

Well i'm not sure exactly how frontpage 2002 codes html but I can tell you that meerly inserting a doctype declaration will not make it conform to the standard unless the rest of the code does. :)

You can always validate it @ w3c.org! :thumbsup:

[brothercake]

A doctype won't really help you, as Mhtml said - a doctype simply tells you which version of (HTML in this case) the document is supposed to comply with.

But since FP can only generate non-compliant coding, you may as well not bother having a doctype at all.

[pb&j]

Hi all, can anyone advise me why Frontpage 2002 does not insert a doctype statement at the top of a page.?

probably... just because.


Can I insert one myself and if so which doctype would frontpage use?

yes you can. the frontpage factor has nothing to do with which doctype to enter, but your coding does. depends on what version/style of coding you are wanting to conform to.

[AndyD]

Whoops silly me.Of course now you've all explained it to me bit of a daft question, if Frontpage does not conform a doctype is irrelevant.

I just wanted the code to conform to wc3 standards but if it means testing every page its impracticale, why cant MS go with the standards.... No I dident ask that ignore that or well have a thread a mile long ...lol :)


Thanks Guys
AndyD

[Roy Sinclair]

Using FrontPage's gui interface is a sure way of getting a non-conforming document but if you simply use it to edit the html there's no reason you can't create conforming documents but then the question is why use it instead of a text editor.

[Mhtml]

I imagine that Microsoft believes they are "above" the standards, and should set their own. . . I'm sure some people will share this opinion. :D

[brothercake]

Originally posted by Mhtml
I imagine that Microsoft believes they are "above" the standards, and should set their own. . . I'm sure some people will share this opinion. :D
Mostly agree. But you have to consider the business case - it's arguably more important (commercially) to have a browser in which 99% of the world's websites work as expected, even the really crappy ones.

Unfortunately that creates a vicious circle - because IE supports crappy coding, people continue to do it, usually because they don't even know what's wrong with it; because they, like almost everyone else, use IE.

What you end up with is "de-facto" standards - what IE does is the de-facto standard. MS don't care how closely that conforms to the proscribed (w3c) standards - and why should they? The real benefit of standards compliance is interoperability - but as far as MS is concerned, progress is a timeline leading to the point where all architecture is MS; MS products have fantastic interoperability with other MS products, so MS don't give a rat's. Standards-compliance is like "well yeah, we 'll aim for it, but we have no qualms about abanding or reinterpreting it if it suits us".

It's quite dark really; but there you go. It's the world.