Validator suggestion for XHTML

I've been reading all the mud being flung back and forth about the validator now
defaulting to XHTML, and for the most part, I agree that the default value
should be left at HTML 4.01 (for now at least).

There are many pages out there that I may want to run through the validator, but
that don't contain DOCTYPE.  For example, pages written by someone else.  I've
made it a habit to include the DOCTYPE in any pages I write.  But for those that
don't, would it be possible to add an option to the validator for the user to
select which DOCTYPE to use?  For example, where I enter the URL, add a drop
down box containing all valid DOCTYPE expressions (keep XHTML as the default if
you want).  This would at least give people the option of choosing what the
default value should be.  If the document contained a DOCTYPE, it would use
that, but if it didn't, it would use the default selected by the user.  I'm sure
this would require a little bit of work, but it would be a tremendous
improvement, especially for those people having problems with 4.01 documents
being validated as XHTML.

Peter

Received on Monday, 31 January 2000 13:21:27 UTC