[wp-hackers] <!DOCTYPE html>

Thu Nov 25 06:06:11 UTC 2010

Haluk Karamete wrote:
> The 2010's header.php has this ( <!DOCTYPE html> ) as the first thing.
>
> If I remove this or comment it out, what are the harms? How important
> is it to keep it?

This is more a HTML question than a WordPress question, as it's
independent of WordPress.

That said, having a DOCTYPE in the document forces the browser into
standards mode. Without this, the browser will render in quirks mode,
which for IE is the equivalent of IE 5.5.

Most likely, your problem could be solved in a different way (using the
aforementioned html5shiv, or IE9.js), enabling you to keep standards mode.

-- 
Ryan McCue
<http://ryanmccue.info/>