- From: Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi>
- Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 18:40:23 +0300 (EEST)
- To: www-validator@w3.org
On Sun, 31 Aug 2003, Gerrit Kaiser wrote: > This error occured when feeding the validator a HTML4.01 > (strict)-document with markup that uses the short tag-closing method > mandatory in XML but not allowed in HTML4 (e.g. <img />) > The current error message reads as follows: > NET-enabling start-tag requires SHORTTAG YES > > Which is, well, not exactly self-explanatory for the average web > author. It cannot be if, it is to be a validator's message. An average Web author _needs_ to learn what validation is before using a validator. Attempts to avoid this will just increase the confusion. Besides, the explanation is plain wrong, and not by coincidence but by the design of the new "validator". I cannot resist the temptation to to point this out, although it's pretty obvious that people either still fail to understand this or continue a conscious effort based on deliberately misleading people. The point is that <img /> _is_ allowed in HTML 4, though its meaning differs from what people think and what browsers do. It's just the "fussy" parsing mode that makes it an "error". But HTML 4 is defined so that the parsing is not "fussy". (It is symptomatic that such a nonsensical pseudo-term is used.) > An explanation that needs an explanation is a bad explanation Not at all. No explanation can be understandable to anyone without further explanations. Validator's explanations should be written for people who have an elementary understanding of what validation is. And for them, the _correct_ explanation would be: "This program implies an SGML declaration containing SHORTTAG NONE, contrary to the HTML 4 specifications, and therefore reports NET-Enabling Start-tag as an error". > This error commonly occures when you close an empty element with '/>'. If you wish to be _practical_, you could say that this "error" commonly occurs from an attempt to mix HTML and XHTML syntax within the same document. But people who are just throw in some slashes because someone told them they are XHTML and XHTML is cool will find the messages confusing anyway, and they need a tutorial, not an explanation to an error message (which itself is an error). > This is not allowed in the version of HTML you are using. That would be just a clearer formulation of the _false_ statement that the "validator" now makes. -- Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Received on Sunday, 31 August 2003 11:40:38 UTC