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03 - Eh? What's that you say?

Spoken language changes through time, the grammar and even sometimes the meanings of words change.  The language that describes webpages has been changing too...

Because the web is a work in progress, because we've been using it during the time it's been growing... there's a trail of changes that need supporting.  We've grown to know better ideas, but along the way we've used those older ideas.. and so there are websites out there that may still be using some of those older ideas.  We want to keep moving forward without alienating the old works... what to do?  .. a solution.. doc type! ...

Even now you can use lots of the older ideas... and there are new ideas many of which arn't necessary available everywhere yet..  sometimes the newer and older ideas clash.  What's a browser to do?  How does it know what a designer means?  The solution... it picks something... unless you direct it otherwise... this direction comes in the form of something called.. "Doc Type" ... it's a little statement you make at the beginning of your document saying something like.. "I'll be using the new version of the web description language."  That way the browser doesn't have to guess at what you might be meaning when you say something... you and the browser displaying your content will "be on the same page"  :)