I'm in halfway trough an html parser and found html5 defined explicitly the rules of thumb for parsing ill formed html. (And I used to infer them from DTDs, sigh)
I love that fact, but I know well that html5 isn't finalized yet (also I wonder if it ever will) and that it isn't developed by the W3C, but by the WHATWG.
Searching for the spec I need I'm presented with:
or
If it wasn't for the section numbers I would induce those are simply the same. But the different numbering makes me wonder. Which version is, supposedly, the most authoritative?
WHATWG seems to have more sections, and to have been added to since W3C uploaded its candidate recommendation.
Will W3C update to the WHATWG version?
Or will they stick to their current candidate until it gets to the official recommendation status?
Which html5 spec are we poor devils supposed to follow, when in doubt?
It depends on who you ask. Really. The politics of this are ugly. And to make matters worse, the specifications aren't fully stable yet. I would have thought that the two specifications would be largely the same in their parsing sections since section 1.1.1 which lists the differences does not mention parsing. But then I did a web diff and I saw that there are subtle differences in the text. I would say that if you are actually implementing the specification to talk to the players involved about any differences you see between the specs, using the public mailing lists. Anyway, I am sorry I can't give you a clear cut answer.