Re: TAG closing! I got proof now! :)

> You don't see C compiler venders stick with just the
> ANSI C, it doesn't sell...

But you don't see C compilers allowing statements from other languages,
or syntactically invalid statements. What you are suggesting is the
equivalent of wanting a C compiler to accept as valid things like DO
100 I=1,10 merely because you happen to be used to it, or that a C
compiler should compile `insert "stdio.h"' just because you don't like
(or can't remember to use) the word `include'? I submit that this would
be wrong. You have to use the right language and syntax.

> and does it matter ... HTML is HTML.  An HTML 3.0 document SHOULD
> display on an HTML 2.0 browser ...  

I cannot see where you got this idea from. A HTML 2.0 browser will
probably display most of a HTML 3.0 document, but it cannot be expected
to respond to markup that hadn't been invented when the HTML 2.0
browser was written.

> if it doesn't, lets quit right
> here, pack HTML and SGML up, and give up... all hope is lost...  As an
> author I sure the hell ain't going to right a custom page for every
> damned browser .. since not every browser uses the same DTD or
> otherwise known as rules.

Quite so. The skill of the HTML author lies in writing files which
display well in _all_ browsers. You must learn this skill if you want
to write robust, portable, reliable, reusable pages. If your target is
something else, then by all means write whatever non-HTML you wish.

> Its got lots of content, and no its not commented, its CDATA ...
> comments don't exist in CDATA ...  only the closing tag of the element
> or its parents...

But a HTML 2.0 browser will skip over the <style> start-tag because it
doesn't recognise it, and therefore will interpret the comment as such.
Which is the "right" thing to do, IMHO.

> But I find my self making the EXACT same tag mistake every time I start
> a new page ... always forgetting the closing STYLE...  its so easy!
> (and any parser I wrote would be smart enough to end it for me! :)
> [...] the SGML crap...  

Then do what I suggest and use the proper tools. And if you are unable to
learn HTML and/or SGML, then there really isn't anything wrong with working
in another field. 

///Peter

Received on Friday, 4 October 1996 04:14:31 UTC