Re: Issue with the markup validator and img name

Michael[tm] Smith wrote:

> I don't know the answer to those specific questions, but I think the
> general answer is that there's no good reason to be using the name
> attribute on the img element. Browsers don't do anything with it, nor
> do any other applications that I'm aware of. It's also definitely not
> valid in the current HTML spec (HTML5),

The current DRAFT specification.  It is extremely misleading to refer
to a work-in-progress as "the current HTML spec".  According to W3C :

	> http://www.w3.org/standards/techs/html#w3c_all

the current HTML specifications include HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and
XHTML 1.1; there is no mention of HTML 5.  HTML 5 appears only
under "Other drafts", of which the W3C says :

>> Drafts
>>
>> Below are draft documents: Candidate Recommendations, Last Call
>> Drafts, other Working Drafts. Some of these may become Web Standards
>> through the W3C Recommendation Track process. Others may be published
>> as Group Notes or become obsolete specifications.


> so if you care about conforming to the current HTML spec,

A possible future HTML specification that is still a work-in-progress,
and which "may become [a] Web Standard through the W3C Recommendation 
Track process [or] may be published as [a] Group Note or become obsolete"

> you shouldn't use the name attribute on img.

Clearly what matters when one is speaking of validation is whether the
document conforms to the DTD (or schema, or whatever) with which it
is written to comply; conformity with a putative future specification,
whilst worth bearing in mind, is not a validation issue at all, which
is what the original enquiry is all about.

Philip Taylor

Received on Thursday, 23 August 2012 06:18:12 UTC