Re: subject and message

scripsit hamilton cline:
> when i had my page basically done it validated out w3c compliant.  but as 
> i've added more things to it, i've run into some snags.  the two that i 
> can't seem to get around are on my aim and email links.  you validator does 
> not acknowledge the subject tag on my email link or the message tag on my 
> aim:goim link.  both do their job in IE6 and NS6 ... though opera5 didn't 
> seem to like my aim link.  is this something that can be updated or am i out 
> of luck?
> 
> >Line 164, column 50:  ... 6;com?body=make me something 
> >pretty&subject=businessops" ...
> >                                                       ^Error: unknown 
> >entity "subject"
> 
> >Line 166, column 35:  ... a 
> >href="aim:goim?screenname=habycl&message=make+me+something ...
> >                                        ^Error: unknown entity "message"

Your problem is the ampersands in the hrefs.  In the first example, you
have `. . . pretty&subject=businessops' -- `&subject' is a reference to
an entity called `subject', in the same way that `&' is a reference
to an ampersand and `"' a reference to a quotation mark.  If
instead you use `&subject' (and `&message' for the AIM link),
you should be fine.  

NS and IE both have extensive error-correction code, which is why they
understand such invalid href values as the above; that doesn't diminish
the invalidity of the code, however.

Now, whether `aim' is a valid protocol for a URL, I'm not going to
venture to say, and AFAIK has no bearing on the validity of the HTML 
. .  .  but that's probably why Opera doesn't like that particular link.

-- 
Thanasis Kinias
Web Developer, Information Technology
Graduate Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.

Ash nazg durbatulūk, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulūk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul

Received on Saturday, 20 April 2002 20:38:07 UTC