Re: Is validity the real issue?

On 11/6/05, Matt May <mcmay@bestkungfu.com> wrote:
> On Nov 6, 2005, at 1:57 AM, Michele Diodati wrote:
> > So, if we think validity is indispensable, a
> > solution could be to request, for every web page published, a
> > content-type of application/xhtml+xml. In that case, validity is
> > actually necessary: no validity no rendering of the page.
>
> Two problems with this:
>
> 1) Parsers using this MIME type are instructed to stop processing if
> the content is not well-formed. It doesn't stop for document invalidity.

This is incorrect, XML parsers are required to stop processing if the
content is not well formed, it's nothing to do with the mime-type,
other than it happens to be one of the ones that identifies XML.  As
text/html is also a mime-type that identifies XML (XHTML 1.0 Appendix
C) then the same User Agents are required to stop on Well Formedness
errors.  Of course they don't, but that is a spec violation.

> 2) This MIME type is not handled properly by Internet Explorer on
> Windows.

The MIME type is completely handled properly by Internet Explorer on
windows, it is not XHTML user agent, and as such it doesn't handle it
natively, either handing it off as it's configued too, or prompts the
user.

Jim.

Received on Sunday, 6 November 2005 20:28:43 UTC