Suggestion for "make check"

Some of the DTD-related errors in my previous mail could be
introduced accidentally any time, so I think it's important
that any future errors get flagged by a "make check".

As you know, right now a "make check" runs nsgmls against
all the HTML files in the specification.

However, since all the HTML files produced use the "Transitional"
doctype, "make check" doesn't currently flag any errors in the
strict or loose DTDs.

So I suggest that a mini- test suite be added somewhere with a
couple extra trivial HTML files with each of the 3 possible
doctypes, to at least make sure each DTD gets parsed by invoking
nsgmls against the appropriate document.

Of course, even better would be a thorough test suite with a
bunch of complex HTML documents that really exercise each DTD,
but that's a lot of work, and I don't mean to suggest that now
as I know you're very busy. (Besides, Dan would probably say
that's my job as the HTML validation service guy, and I'm also
very busy. :)

But adding the minimal test suite I describe above shouldn't
be much work at all, and it would ensure that there are no bugs
accidentally introduced to DTDs in the future.

Gerald
-- 
Gerald Oskoboiny            <gerald@w3.org>  +1 617 253 2920
System Administrator, W3C   http://www.w3.org/People/Gerald/
World Wide Web Consortium, MIT Labatory for Computer Science
545 Technology Square, Room NE43-353  Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Received on Tuesday, 28 October 1997 20:18:31 UTC