Re: Doc Types! and BASE HREF's

At 07:07 AM 01/03/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Hey HTML'rs...
>
>I am stumped as to not WHICH DocType to use in defining my header, but
>WHERE to put it...It seems that some validators are very persnickety and
>wish to see it in line 'x' while others say it is just fine to put it on
>line 'q' etc. I am very confused...

Hello,

According to the standards, the Doctype declaration should be the very=20
first element to appear in a HTML document.  There should be nothing else=20
before it, no spaces, no line breaks and no other elements.  It should=20
appear even before the opening HTML tag.  Personally I have never seen it=20
added anywhere else anyway (when it's there at all of course) so I'm=20
curious as to what "validator" permits it to appear somewhere else in a=20
document.

>Also, is there a definitive resource for determining which Doc Type to
>use? I know there's "loose" and "transitional"...It's so confusing to a
>newbie like myself.

Actually "loose" and "transitional" are basically referencing the same=20
thing as the DTD files for both HTML 4.0 and 4.01 Transitional are called=20
"loose.dtd".  The other kind is "Strict" and you should use it only if you=
=20
are ready to forego all presentational markup and use CSS only for=20
styling.  The Strict DTD as the name implies is a lot stricter about the=20
elements you are allowed to use.  The definitive resource for all things=20
regarding HTML (as well as many other standards) is the W3C:=
 http://www.w3.org

HTH!

St=E9phane Bergeron

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