- From: Alexander Biron <biron@ifh.de>
- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 10:44:53 +0100 (MET)
- To: Bertilo Wennergren <bertilow@chello.se>
- cc: <html-tidy@w3.org>
Hi Bertilo, On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, Bertilo Wennergren wrote: > Randy Waki: > > > 4-Aug-2000 Tidy's handling of illegal ampersands such as "id=1&lang=en" > > is inconsistent with browsers. > > Which browsers? Please demonstrate code that uses the correct "&" > and that breaks in a named browser. > > If you can't do that, then just correct the code, as Tidy wants > you too, and be done with it. There is no question in this case that using the correct code would be the best choice. But: Tidy has turned from a pure pretty-printer to a multi purpose tool, one of whom's tasks is error-fixing. Yes, not only error-warning but error-fixing. So, when we discuss tidy's error-fixing features, we have to assume that the input code is illegal/wrong/whatever-you-call-it. Now, in the above example of "id=1&lang=en", my mind tells me that the author probably should have written "id=1&lang=en". But perhaps I am wrong, perhaps the author (human or program) did actually want to code something which should be written as "id=1⟨=en". This is a classic example that automized error-fixing is doomed to fail in at least some cases. So the question with respect to error-fixing is: which option should tidy use? I would support Randy (fix it the way the two large browsers interpret it) for a very simple reason: The most common way of HTML debugging is not validating, but browser-testing (by the author and by the users). So if the intended effect is not achieved in browsers, the error is likely to be fixed soon. If the browsers interpret the error in the way the author wants it to be interpreted, the error will persist - untill tidy wants to fix it. -- Cheers alex Alexander Biron "All science is either physics or stamp collecting." Ernest Rutherford (Nobel Price in chemistry 1908) /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign \ / --------------------- http://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~biron/ X against HTML mail Tel (+49)33762-7-7516 / \ and postings mailto:biron@ifh.de
Received on Monday, 19 February 2001 04:45:05 UTC