ER dependencies with authoring tools

aloha, y'all!

in considering the question "what dependencies exist between ER and the
Authoring Tool Guidelines (AUGL)?" i have concluded that there is at least one
clear cut dependency, namely the possibility of rolling an existing evaluation
and repair tool into an authoring tool, so as to allow the user to retrofit
existing pages/sites, as well as providing accessibility checks and validation
for newly created pages/sites...  the evaluation and repair tool (ERT) need not
-- and probably should not -- be bundled into the authoring tool, but, rather,
should be accessed online, thereby ensuring that the authoring tool is making
the latest version of an ERT available to the user, rather than saddling the
author with an antedated pre-packaged version...  there is precedent for such
an integration -- Allaire's HomeSite, for example, allows one to use some
online utilities/engines to check things such as broken links, so why shouldn't
an authoring tool also make an online ERT available to its users?

providing a mechanism whereby your pages and/or sites can be checked via an
online ERT is an easy out for smaller developers who can't afford to develop
and maintain their own ERT, but who want to satisfy as much of the AUGL as
possible with the programming time available to them...

as for where this fits into AUGL, i'd say Guideline 4: "Provide methods of
checking and correcting inaccessible content"
        http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-AUTOOLS-19990903/#gl-identify-markup

gregory
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He that lives on Hope, dies farting
     -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
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Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
   President, WebMaster, & Minister of Propaganda, 
        VICUG NYC <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/>
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Received on Wednesday, 22 September 1999 11:44:27 UTC