Re: [ANN] tool for checking HTML compatibility guidelines in XHTML

Sorry for the delay in responding to this, but
it is only on re-reading that I noticed what
appears to be a very significant statement
"buried in the small print" :

Olivier Thereaux wrote:

[...]

> One of the ideas behind releasing such a library is to use it as a 
> component in the W3C Markup Validator - as part of a deliberate strategy 
> to make that tool less of a formal validator, and more useful for Web 
> authors -. 

This concerns me greatly.  The validator is a very important
tool, and a great part of its strength is that it "does exactly
what it says on the tin".  Any attempt to either dilute or extend
that seems to me to be misplaced.  The validator should remain
a validator, pure and simple.  By all means introduce a new
"Web author useful" suite of tools, of which the validator is
just one, but please please please don't try to make the
validator a general work horse (hammer) rather than a precision
tool (scalpel).

Philip TAYLOR

Received on Thursday, 3 July 2008 09:29:14 UTC