validator barfs on Netscape Composer output
From: Phil Burk (philburk@softsynth.com)
Date: Fri, Mar 31 2000
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 20:29:26 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <38E55068.CDA83C7F@softsynth.com>
From: Phil Burk <philburk@softsynth.com>
To: www-validator@w3.org
Subject: validator barfs on Netscape Composer output
Hello,
I use Netscape Composer to edit my web pages. I tried to use the W3C
validator to look for broken links on my web site. But unfortunately,
the W3C validator generated a HUGE number of errors for my page. So many
errors, in fact, that I have more doubts about the validator than I do
about the Netscape editor.
The first thing it rejects is the DOCTYPE. Netscape puts this at the
top.
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
The W3C validator completely freaked out over it so I replaced it with
this.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
I guess the validator is case sensitive!
Once I got past that hurdle, the validator complained about having COLS
in my table tag. It also complained about stuff like size=+1. Now maybe
this stuff is technically illegal but the web pages seem to work.
So my suggestions are:
1) correct the validator for things like case sensitive DOCTYPE
checking,
2) beat up Netscape to stop them from PRODUCING illegal code in their
Composer,
3) provide a "forgiving" or "non-anal" option in the validator that
passes commonly used code that is technically illegal. Only report truly
broken stuff.
THANKS
--
Phil Burk
SoftSynth.com
mailto:philburk@softsynth.com
http://www.softsynth.com