Re: W3C HTML Validator Suggestion

On Feb 14, 2005, at 5:23, Sam Carter wrote:
> I use the W3C HTML Validator - NOT URL or FILE UPLOAD.  My webs reside 
> on a firewalled internet so I use Chris Pederick's WebDeveloper 
> extension
>  
> http://www.chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/
>  
> which in turn, calls W3C passing the HTML (local copy) for 
> validation.  I don't know how I would validate otherwise...  so much 
> of our HTML content is generated by a database and additionally, web 
> page access requires web-form login before the target page can be 
> loaded.

You could save the generated html, and then use the validator with the 
"upload" interface... Which is exactly what the "validate local copy" 
does for you.

> I would appreciate having an option to view invalid HTML source code 

How about "view source" in your browser before you send it to the 
validator? Granted, that would not allow you to jump to the exact 
position of an error, but the browser you are using does have, as far 
as I know, a very decent view source mode with search features.

>  No option is provided to view source using the Chirs Pederick/W3C 
> Validator combination. 

As you know, the W3C Markup validator does have this option, it's just 
the "web developer extension" that does not use it.

> how about defaulting to display source WHEN THERE IS AN ERROR? 

This was actually the case a while ago, the Markup Validator would 
"force display source" when a document would be invalid, and that was 
criticized as being bad UI to force a feature when the user did not ask 
for it, or, indeed, when the user asked to *not* have it.

Of course as you note
> Understanding it's not possible for W3C to add a checkbox to view 
> source AFTER THE VALIDATION
there  is no revalidation option possible when using the upload 
mechanism, which makes it difficult when you don't have access to the 
options in the first place.

My honest suggestion would be for you to contact the maintainer of the 
browser extension, and ask to either give a configuration mechanism to 
set the validation options (show source, parse tree, etc) or set them 
on by default.

Regards,
-- 
olivier