Re: Help with decoding error messages?

[ Sorry, I'm a bit behind in reading w-v mail ]

On 29.06.01 at 11:39, Ed Tittel <etittel@lanw.com> wrote:

>  I write copiously and regularly on HTML and XHTML for more low-
>tech members of the Web community. One of the biggest challenges in
>encouraging such people to use the validator is that they're almost
>all inexperienced in reading parser- or compiler-style error messages,
>and in using that information to figure out exactly what changes or
>repairs should be made to their documents. [...]
>
>I'm wondering if anybody can point me to resources on the following:
>
>(a) a complete list of validator error messages

No, there are just too many of them to easily produce a complete list.
However, the more common ones are available in the form of their
explanations at <URL:http://validator.w3.org/docs/errors.html>. As new
"common" errors appear, their explanations will be added there. Any help
with that, or with improving the ones already there, will be _greatly_
appreciated!


>(b) guidelines on how to read and interpret the validator's output
>I'm not expecting to find anything terribly user friendly (I figure I
>can handle that part) but I have been unable to come up with any 
>comprehensive or terribly detailed on this subject.

I don't think I can give you anything general enough to be of any use. Tell
you what, why don't you post here or send me mail off-list with any
questions you have on interpreting Validator output and I'll try to help
you parse them. Given a specific error message you should be able to get an
explanation of what it means.

Received on Saturday, 14 July 2001 23:50:05 UTC