Re: Ampersands + "Last modified:" Malfunctions

Dear Alan,
I see what you are saying, I got "I'da Danced at His Hanging" instead of
"9TimeZones.com".
Maybe this is a problem with ASP or with the xlibris server?
I don't think this is a "backwards compatibility" issue.  The W3C standards for HTML
3.2 predates the vast majority of contemporary web content!
The & trick has worked fine for me with all (about one hundred) external sites I
link to.
Have you tried using %## as a work around?  (I forget the hex number value for
ampersand.)
I hope some guru on this list will tell you with some authority what exactly is broken,
but I don't believe it is the W3C validator!
Good luck!
-- Bruce Bailey

"Alan C. Baird" wrote:

> Hi Bruce!
>
> >>> Thu, 22 Jun 2000 09:32:41 -0400 <bbailey@clark.net> >>>
> >
> > Others have corrected you about the use of &amp; -- CGI authors out
> > there to don't have to stop programming in the commonly-accepted
> > fashion, but page authors DO need to start linking to them
> > correctly!  Did you try the proposed remedy before complaining that
> > the validator was broken?
>
> Of course.  For example:
>
> > http://www.xlibris.com/XL/container.asp?element=display.asp&show=b&sku=784
>
> displays my book, "9TimeZones.com" - while the proposed remedy:
>
> > http://www.xlibris.com/XL/container.asp?element=display.asp&amp;show=b&amp;sku=784
>
> shows a book called "The Seeker"!  While this difference may not
> occur in your browser, it does happen for 80% of my business
> associates, and for 100% of the browsers in the Glendale Public
> Library system.  As you might imagine, I can't ignore a discrepancy
> this large.  I know the W3C wants to eliminate solitary ampersands
> from link URLs, but whatever happened to the good old idea of
> "backward compatibility"?!
>
> > You also reported  that:
> >
> > > Also, when providing a direct link to the validation results:
> > >  http://validator.w3.org/check/referer ,
> > > the validator generates a "Last modified:" field which has nothing
> > > to do with the page being validated.  In other words, the validator
> > > indicates that any given page is being modified continuously!
> >
> > The generated last modified value is correct on my pages.  Perhaps
> > this is an idiosyncrasy of your server?
>
> No, you're right - the W3C has repaired this malfunction since I
> reported it on June 3.
>
> Thanks for your feedback!
>
> Alan ia@apc.net
> [not a list member]