Re: value 'scroll' for background-attachement

Dennis van der Laan wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
>>> When I use the CSS property
>>>
>>> "background-attachement: scroll;"
>>>
>>> the validator states the value "scroll" is not a valid value, but 
>>> when I use it through the shortcut
>>>
>>> "background: url(image.jpg) #A6AEC3 no-repeat scroll bottom left;"
>>>
>>> it works fine... Is this a bug in the validator?
> 
> 
>> Perhaps the problem is that you misspelled attachment.
>>
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/colors.html#propdef-background-attachment
> 
> 
> I think that WAS the problem... turning all red over here :-|

to err is human, and it's rather frustrating when computers don't cater for our failings. i think it's especially important for the validator to help here as (rightly or wrongly) a lot of people do turn to the validator for *help*, and there's no harm in being helpful.

i once spent close on 30 minutes with a similar problem. it was a css workshop[1] in sheffield, england -- which as you'll shortly see is rather relevant. myself, the roomful of students *and* our css lecturer could not fathom[2]:

"Property colour doesn't exist : red 

for:

p
{
  colour: red;
}

so, i'd like to see the validator implement the levenshtein/edit distance algorithm (1965)[3]. it's short and sweet, and tells you how similar 2 strings are (it counts the number of insertions, deletions, or substitutions required to transform the strings into each other).

the validator could then have better said:

"The property 'colour' is unknown. Perhaps you meant 'color'?"

- p

--
1.
http://access.lowtech.org/

2.
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?text=p%0D%0A%7B%0D%0A++colour%3A+red%3B%0D%0A%7D%0D%0A&usermedium=all

3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance

Received on Tuesday, 30 August 2005 20:36:59 UTC