In the argument about what is the right thing for IE8 developers to do with regards to web standards I have little sympathy. They built this mess and now they’re going to be stung for it. But I don’t really care about that.
DOCTYPE is a myth.
A mortal web designer who attaches a DOCTYPE tag to their web page saying, “this is standard HTML,†is committing an act of hubris. There is no way they know that. All they are really saying is that the page was meant to be standard HTML. All they really know is that they tested it with IE, Firefox, maybe Opera and Safari, and it seems to work. Or, they copied the DOCTYPE tag out of a book and don’t know what it means.
I always thought that DOCTYPE was a waste of time and I remember having a discussion with Steve Rushe on this exact topic many moons ago at some BLUG meeting.
It’s a long post and will send half of you off to make a cuppa before it’s done so be warned.