Re: --->Please make sure you specified the DOCTYPE properly

From: Robert.W.Blackburn@apcc.com
Date: Fri, Jul 27 2001

  • Next message: Terje Bless: "Re: --->Please make sure you specified the DOCTYPE properly"

    From: Robert.W.Blackburn@apcc.com
    To: www-validator@w3.org, www-validator-request@w3.org
    Message-ID: <OF819805CD.5E22CF72-ON85256A96.004A51B6@ams.apc.com>
    Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 09:53:05 -0400
    Subject: Re: --->Please make sure you specified the DOCTYPE properly
    
    
    Sorry, my first message was not very clear.
    Any URI will give me this message, for example http://www.yahoo.com or
    http://www.excite.com
    The URI's work fine for me when I use the validator on
    http://validator.w3.org , but my local copy is where I get the error, so I
    would assume it has something to do with the way I installed it (I have
    VERY limited knowledge of Perl, I'm a CFML programmer)
    
    (
    BTW: If I can get this to work, I will see what I can do for the UPS Web
    Management interface. :o)
    Trust me that's not the only thing that needs cleaning,... please, nobody
    validate www.apcc.com, its not pretty.
    )
    
    On 26.07.01 at 17:00, Robert.W.Blackburn@apcc.com wrote:
    
    >     Uh oh! I got the following unknown error: D:
    >     \webroot\validate\sp\bin\nsgmls.exe:0:157:96:E: invalid comment
    >     declaration: found name character outside comment but inside comment
    >     declaration Please make sure you specified the DOCTYPE properly!
    
    As others have said, it's very difficult to diagnose this problem without
    seeing the document in question, but judging from that error message you
    have something like the following in the input:
    
    <!-- comment #1 -- garbage -- comment #2 -->
    
    Comments in SGML are tricky beasts. The full set of comments must be
    cntained within "<!" and ">". In addition, each comment (there can be more
    then one) must be delimited on each side with "--".
    
    <!
      -- comment #1 --
         garbage
      -- comment #2 --
    >
    
    The string "garbage" is _not_ a comment in this case, and would probably
    generate the error message you see. Complex interactions of comments and
    other elements (not to mention scripts!) may confuse this issue
    considerably.
    
    Please try to reduce this to the smallest example that will generate that
    error message and post it to the list. Hopefully we'll be able to figure
    out what's going on, how to fix it, and maybe add a better error
    explanation for this error in future versions.
    
    
    
    (
      BTW, does this mean your UPS Web Management interface will be
      valid HTML now? -link, happy user of about 50 Smart-UPS 1000. :-)
    )