Re: Suggestion: "allow extra attributes" flag

On Thu, 2 Aug 2001, Bryce Nesbitt wrote:

> It's really common to include extra attributes in a web page,
> for assorted browser-compatibility reasons.  The extra tags
> are ignored by browsers that don't understand, and everyone is happy.

 - until different vendors start using additional attributes to mean
different things.  We've already seen that (e.g. <td width="n%"> -
where some browsers give you a percentage of table width, others
a percentage of browser width).

> Except the validator.  It would nice to have a little button that says
> "show only structual errors".  The validator would check the site,
> but allow extra tags and extra attributes to tags.
> 
> But any misuse of a known tag or attribute would be flagged.

If you want to fine-tune what gets reported as an error message,
the Code Valet offers a wide range of options.  But the better
solution to your problem is:
  (1) Stick to valid HTML or XHTML (strict)
  (2) If you *really* have a compelling reason to do otherwise,
      define what you're doing in a DTD and validate against that.

-- 
Nick Kew

Site Valet - the essential service for anyone with a website.
<URL:http://valet.webthing.com/>

Received on Thursday, 2 August 2001 16:10:41 UTC