Re: XHTML Validator to RSS

Karl,

While it is certainly clever and could be useful, I think it is
impractical for all but those websites where validating pages is a
status symbol rather than a requirement.  If an XHTML page is
delivered via the correct MIME type (application/xhtml+xml) then
catching these errors after the fact would result in a horrible user
experience for those visitors who see the site before the author is
able to correct the error (e.g. Parse error on line ...).  Validation
of pages should be taken care of preemptively by software (like HTML
Tidy), rather than after the fact by a human being.

Recently there were some heated discussions (see
http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/06/17/validation_m/index.php
and links from it) venting frustration about validiation.  Much of
this angst came from the fact that the designers were having to
correct bazillions of small errors and as a result they became annoyed
(rightly so).  This Feed Validator makes it easier to find these
errors, but the burden still remains on the site maintainer and this
is why I feel that this solution is only useful in small static sites
where validation is optional.  We should let machines do the grunt
work while we do the fun stuff.

Cheers,

Josh King

Received on Monday, 5 July 2004 14:03:22 UTC