HTML5 - Syntax

The HTML 5 language has a "custom" HTML syntax that is compatible with HTML 4 and XHTML1 documents published on the Web, but is not compatible with the more esoteric SGML features of HTML 4.

HTML 5 does not have the same syntax rules as XHTML where we needed lower case tag names, quoting our attributes,an attribute had to have a value and to close all empty elements.

But HTML5 is coming with lots of flexibility and would support the followings:

• Uppercase tag names.
• Quotes are optional for attributes.
• Attribute values are optional.
• Closing empty elements are optional.

The DOCTYPE:

DOCTYPEs in older versions of HTML were longer because the HTML language was SGML based and therefore required a reference to a DTD.

HTML 5 authors would use simple syntax to specify DOCTYPE as follows:


All the above syntax is case-insensitive.

Character Encoding:

HTML 5 authors can use simple syntax to specify Character Encoding as follows:


All the above syntax is case-insensitive.

The <script> tag:

It's common practice to add a type attribute with a value of "text/javascript" to script elements as follows:


HTML 5 removes extra information required and you can use simply following syntax:


The <link> tag:

So far you were writing as follows:


HTML 5 removes extra information required and you can use simply following syntax:

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