Proposed Doctype Change April 23, 2013 9:11 AM Subscribe
This is a note to MetaFilter browser extension authors. We're considering a change to the Doctype across the site. Please weigh in if you have concerns.
Currently, MetaFilter uses the
One of the tools we use behind the scenes is jQuery. It helps us do fancy things like the inline YouTube player, adding favorites, inline comment updates, and generally speed up JavaScript development. And newer, better performing versions of jQuery aren't thrilled with our doctype. It makes calculating things like the Window height difficult. So we'd like to move to the simple HTML5 doctype so we can move ahead along with jQuery. We haven't updated since they moved to jQuery 1.8.1 because of this quirks mode problem.
This change wouldn't affect the site experience for users, but it could impact MetaFilter browser extensions. Most likely things would work just fine with the new doctype, but there's a chance some code would need to change. So we wanted to give everyone a heads up that we're considering this change and get your feedback.
Currently, MetaFilter uses the
HTML 4.0 Transitional doctype. We'd like to move to the more straightforward HTML5 doctype: <!DOCTYPE HTML>.One of the tools we use behind the scenes is jQuery. It helps us do fancy things like the inline YouTube player, adding favorites, inline comment updates, and generally speed up JavaScript development. And newer, better performing versions of jQuery aren't thrilled with our doctype. It makes calculating things like the Window height difficult. So we'd like to move to the simple HTML5 doctype so we can move ahead along with jQuery. We haven't updated since they moved to jQuery 1.8.1 because of this quirks mode problem.
This change wouldn't affect the site experience for users, but it could impact MetaFilter browser extensions. Most likely things would work just fine with the new doctype, but there's a chance some code would need to change. So we wanted to give everyone a heads up that we're considering this change and get your feedback.
Right now it's simply for jQuery compatibility. We aren't planning a major HTML5 overhaul anytime soon.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:36 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by pb (staff) at 9:36 AM on April 23, 2013
Not a developer, but seems to me that this is the future, so eventually this change will need to be made, right? If so, why wait?
posted by cjorgensen at 9:58 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by cjorgensen at 9:58 AM on April 23, 2013
I fully support this important change which I don't understand what it does.
posted by Justinian at 9:59 AM on April 23, 2013 [21 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 9:59 AM on April 23, 2013 [21 favorites]
As somebody who's written things Mefi tools in the past and probably will in the future, I say go the heck for it. But as somebody who doesn't currently have anything in use, I'm glad to defer to anybody this actually affects.
posted by ardgedee at 10:04 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by ardgedee at 10:04 AM on April 23, 2013
my preferred doctype is gynecologist.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 10:12 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 10:12 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
My preferred doctype is wharf.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:37 AM on April 23, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:37 AM on April 23, 2013 [6 favorites]
My preferred doctype is dwarf.
posted by LionIndex at 10:43 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by LionIndex at 10:43 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
My preferred dwarftype is Doc (though I also appreciate Sneezy.)
posted by Jahaza at 10:45 AM on April 23, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by Jahaza at 10:45 AM on April 23, 2013 [7 favorites]
My preferred doctype is Ock.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:46 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:46 AM on April 23, 2013 [5 favorites]
My preferred octype is cipital lobe.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:00 AM on April 23, 2013 [9 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 11:00 AM on April 23, 2013 [9 favorites]
My preferred doctype is Charles S. Dutton. Wait, that's roctype.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:09 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by Rock Steady at 11:09 AM on April 23, 2013
My preferred doctype holds the Universe together.
posted by flabdablet at 11:39 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 11:39 AM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
My preferred doctype is of the bay.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:42 AM on April 23, 2013 [12 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:42 AM on April 23, 2013 [12 favorites]
My preferred doctype is with dandelion.
posted by arcticseal at 12:26 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by arcticseal at 12:26 PM on April 23, 2013
I won't notice this at all, since I don't use any extensions that interact directly with MetaFilter. But I'm always glad to see sites going more straightforward and standardized, so I'm all for it!
posted by batmonkey at 12:32 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by batmonkey at 12:32 PM on April 23, 2013
Well I guess that's one way to fix Metafilter's invalid numeric comment id attributes.
posted by ryanrs at 1:01 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by ryanrs at 1:01 PM on April 23, 2013
If this breaks oldIE, I'd consider it a feature, rather than a bug.
posted by schmod at 1:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by schmod at 1:09 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
So is anyone else's install of Plutor's deleted post script defaulting to hiding the post text now? Mine started doing that Friday and it's still doing it. Every time I load a MetaFilter page again it reverts to hiding the deleted post text. I have made no changes myself.
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 1:34 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by laconic skeuomorph at 1:34 PM on April 23, 2013
laconic, I am running a script called "Mefi deleted posts fix" that is working just fine in Chrome.
posted by Rock Steady at 1:41 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by Rock Steady at 1:41 PM on April 23, 2013
I wish Simple English Wikipedia was better at having entries for things like "Doctype."
posted by aniola at 3:22 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by aniola at 3:22 PM on April 23, 2013
I, for one, welcome our new doctype.
posted by chavenet at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
Old browsers like IE6 et al just fall back on the 4.01 doctype rendering anyway, so it won't break any browsers (although they fall back on 4.01 strict, not transitional, so that MIGHT be a little interesting.)
posted by davejay at 3:48 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by davejay at 3:48 PM on April 23, 2013
Now I can't read doctype without hearing duct tape in an awesome accent. Thank you for this.
posted by klausman at 3:55 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by klausman at 3:55 PM on April 23, 2013 [3 favorites]
I was so thrilled when I got a site I'm working on to validate as HTML5 with the straight-up HTML doctype recently. I'm excited about this just because I was excited about that.
posted by limeonaire at 5:01 PM on April 23, 2013
posted by limeonaire at 5:01 PM on April 23, 2013
Cue ColdFusion errors in 3...2...1...
posted by Bugbread at 5:24 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Bugbread at 5:24 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
My preferred doctype is what's up.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:34 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by sciencegeek at 5:34 PM on April 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
IE6 is dead, go for it.
(Well, yes, I know IE6 isn't completely dead ... yet.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 5:44 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
(Well, yes, I know IE6 isn't completely dead ... yet.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 5:44 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
I love it. Now if we could get some microformat standards for quoting comments and annotating links all would be right with the world.
posted by humanfont at 9:46 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by humanfont at 9:46 PM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
my preferred doctype is gynecologist.
I would anti-favorite this if I could. Everyone likes their anesthesiologist the best! (even if they never remember who they were)
posted by TedW at 6:50 AM on April 24, 2013
I would anti-favorite this if I could. Everyone likes their anesthesiologist the best! (even if they never remember who they were)
posted by TedW at 6:50 AM on April 24, 2013
Just to clarify any misinformation being described here, IE6 works absolutely fine with the HTML5 doctype.
In fact, it was chosen as the shortest possible doctype that triggers standards-mode across all browsers.
(The HTML5 features that can cause problems with IE6&7 (and older) are the newer semantic elements, like <section> and <aside>. These can be fixed by using the HTML5shim, which is handily included in the brill Modernizr library. But I digress.)
posted by Magnakai at 7:10 AM on April 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
In fact, it was chosen as the shortest possible doctype that triggers standards-mode across all browsers.
(The HTML5 features that can cause problems with IE6&7 (and older) are the newer semantic elements, like <section> and <aside>. These can be fixed by using the HTML5shim, which is handily included in the brill Modernizr library. But I digress.)
posted by Magnakai at 7:10 AM on April 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm trying to save space on my computer by deleting all the fonts. Could you please render the text as SVG from now on?
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:37 PM on April 24, 2013
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:37 PM on April 24, 2013
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posted by flabdablet at 6:46 PM on April 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
restless_nomad pointed me to this thread after I wrote in the contact form that AskMe seems to suddenly look way better for me in Chrome. I don't know if it's related or coincidence, but the spacing and regularity of the whole page just look markedly better.
It may be that whatever has changed is more visible there b/c posts are basically one line. It may be I'm making all of this up. Who knows. But the other day I logged in and went "huh, what changed? It looks better," so I'm thinking it may be related. In any case it's a good enough reason to say thanks for all the backend work.
posted by Miko at 9:30 PM on May 3, 2013
It may be that whatever has changed is more visible there b/c posts are basically one line. It may be I'm making all of this up. Who knows. But the other day I logged in and went "huh, what changed? It looks better," so I'm thinking it may be related. In any case it's a good enough reason to say thanks for all the backend work.
posted by Miko at 9:30 PM on May 3, 2013
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posted by boo_radley at 9:34 AM on April 23, 2013