W3C has announced that several elements have become deprecated, such as <font>, <frameset> and <strong>, most of which can be replaced by CSS. This change was said to be brought about in HTML 5, however, if I put the HTML 5 doctype on a document these elements still seem to work. Am I unknowingly not actually applying the HMTL 5 doctype, or am I just completely misinterpreting the W3C's notice?
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Bluefire
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Where did you read that they are deprecated? [HTML5 doctor seems to suggest otherwise](http://html5doctor.com/i-b-em-strong-element/). – Chris Jun 12 '12 at 21:51
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[Ahem](http://www.tutorialspoint.com/html5/html5_deprecated_tags.htm). – Bluefire Jun 12 '12 at 21:58
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Strong is not in the list you link to. – Chris Jun 13 '12 at 09:06
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What I meant by that is that a lot of tags that are shortcuts for basic CSS are deprecated. I wanted to list one of them, and the first that came into my mind was strong. I should have used something like big. – Bluefire Jun 13 '12 at 09:57
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1Tags are not shortcuts for CSS. Tags are there to describe your content. CSS is there for presentation. Although the specs recommend default presentation for elements, these are not required (because the browser is not required to give any visual presentation at all - they could be entirely aural). Normal desktop browsers have a [default stylesheet](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32875/browsers-default-css), this is not the same thing as being 'a shortcut for basic CSS'. You're thinking about things the wrong way. – robertc Jun 13 '12 at 10:18
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Deprecated in this case means that the features remain but their use may raise warning messages recommending alternative practices, and deprecation may indicate that the feature will be removed in the future.
Basically try not to use as there are better alternatives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation
AvengingBudda
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The DOCTYPE does not determine what elements will be supported. If your browser supports an element, than the element will 'work'. Browsers support elements that are deprecated, because they have to work well when they are used to view old sites.
As a thought experiment, what do you think this code will do?
bluefire {
display: block;
padding: 1em;
border: 2px solid black;
}
<bluefire>
Hello world!
</bluefire>
The definition of whether or not elements 'work' is not clear cut.
robertc
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1So if the browsers will support them anyway, what's the point of deprecating the elements in the first place? – Bluefire Jun 12 '12 at 21:42
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2@Bluefire Browsers may suddenly stop supporting if they so choose. Deprecating old and broken features tells developers to write code from now on that uses the newer, better features. Eventually (hopefully), the old software that uses deprecated features will fade away and die. – kevin628 Jun 12 '12 at 21:44
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@robertc - so if I put some CSS code in the head for ``, even if browsers stop supporting it, it will still work? – Bluefire Jun 13 '12 at 10:00
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@Bluefire That depends on what you're expecting it to do. Define 'work'. – robertc Jun 13 '12 at 10:14
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@Bluefire Only IE<9 has issues with unrecognised elements. Everything else will stick it in the DOM with a standard set of DOM element properties. – robertc Jun 13 '12 at 16:47
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the infinitive "to deprecate" means, simply, "to strongly disapprove of (something)". - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation
This is true. The tags will still work, but it is strongly suggested to avoid the use of them.
StealingMana
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No, just misinterpreting the meaning of 'deprecated'. When elements are deprecated they don't suddenly stop working. Have a look at this thread for more discussion and links;
