Posted by Jukka K. Korpela on 06/04/07 08:30

Scripsit Gérard Talbot:

> HTML 4.01 strict DTD is a clear and complete conformance to the HTML
> 4.01 spec.

I think I see what you mean by that, but as written, it's partly obscure,
partly misleading. I don't whether the expression "A is a conformance to B"
is acceptable by the rules of English or what exactly you mean by that. The
conformance requirements in HTML specifications relate to documents and
browsers (user agents), not DTDs. For conformance, one of three DTDs can be
used in a document. There is no "clear" or "complete" conformance as
opposite to just conformance, especially in matters of formal syntax.

Moreover, contrary to rather widespread misconception, conformance to a DTD
(Strict or Transitional), i.e. validity, does not imply conformance to the
HTML 4.01 specification. The specification contains several requirements
that are not expressed (or even expressible) in the DTDs.

> Strict DTD promotes a clear separation of content and presentation.

In that sense, of course, the strict DTD reflects the spirit of the
specification better than the Transitional DTD does. But this is not a
conformance issue.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

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