Re: "Unable to Determine Parse Mode" warning given when inappropriate

On Mar 26, 2008, at 21:04 , Eugene Reimer wrote:
> When using the W3C validator on http://ereimer.net/shopping- 
> temp.htm  everything works well except for the following warning:
>
> Unable to Determine Parse Mode!

You're using a custom DTD. The validator says "hey! I'm not sure if  
this is SGML or XML, but I'll try with SGML anyway" and succeeds.  
There is a *warning* (not an error, a *warning*) that tells you about  
this unusual case.

So... What's the issue?

> There is also a very simple solution:  in all cases where that  
> warning is being issued, simply use SGML-mode without grumbling  
> about it.


I don't think that's a good idea. This warning can be very useful for  
people who may have made a typo in "writing down" their doctype, and  
these are, AFAIK, more frequent and more clueless than people crafting  
their custom DTD but not complaining about subsequent warning.

Some days I wonder if it wouldn't be better if this validator didn't  
support custom DTDs at all. Those who want to use their own DTDs can  
use their prefered validating parser, which really doesn't do much  
less than the online validator in this case.



Regards,
-- 
olivier

Received on Thursday, 27 March 2008 18:37:45 UTC