Public beta test of the Markup Validator

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 |                        Public Beta Test of The                      |
 |                     W3C MarkUp Validation Service                   |
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After about a year of saying "Real Soon Now[tm]", a new version of the
W3C MarkUp Validation Service is now available for testing.

                    <URL:http://validator.w3.org:8001/>


This is a public beta test of the new version before it is released in 
production. This implies that the code is _not_ ready for use in a 
production environment. If you are making a "Mission Critical" use of the 
validator you should not rely on this beta version. On a more general 
note, please remember that the Markup validator software and service are 
provided as is and with no warranty.


There is no fixed schedule for the final release of this new version, but
we sincerely hope to get it out the door before the end of the year; much
sooner if we can manage it. Depending on the amount and nature of the
feedback we recieve the release may be dubbed "Final Release" in a matter
of weeks!

We are looking for feedback on all aspects of the MarkUp Validator, but we
are in particular interested to hear from people who experience problem
with the new version that do not exist in the current stable release. Other
specific areas we are particularly interested in feedback on include:

    * Problems with the current stable release that are fixed in
      the new version.

    * The new website and user interface.

    * Any and all problems related to the Accessibility of the web
      interface and website[0].

    * The documentation (Yes, Virginia, there really _is_ documentation
      for the MarkUp Validator!).

    * Missing features[1] etc.

But don't let that hold you back! We are looking for any and all feedback
-- good or bad! -- for all aspects of the service. Don't hesitate to drop
us a note no matter how little the issue. In particular, don't assume
something is so obvious that we're surely aware of it! Send it in anyways.
Really!


C O N T A C T:

    The main contact point for feedback on the W3C MarkUp Validation
    Service is the publically archived mailinglist <www-validator@w3.org>.
    You can subscribe to this list by sending a message to

        <www-validator-request@w3.org>

    with the word "subscribe" in the Subject field. To view the archives of
    this list you can visit

        <URL:http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/>.

    Several of the developers also frequent the IRC channel #validator
    on OPN (irc.openprojects.net).


W H A T ' S  N E W

    The majority of changes in this new version are either bug fixes or
    internal restructuring to facilitate future development. Significant
    changes include:

    * Valid Result Pages now show more human readable results and less
      technical detail. This behaviour may be changed if significant
      negative feedback surfaces (so don't forget to send us feedback!).

    * Character Encoding issues are more fully handled and the majority of
      the Character Encoding related code has been rewritten. This should
      mean better and more robust handling of Character Encodings --
      particularly for non-US/European Encodings -- but is also stricter
      with sloppy encoding declarations and malformed encoded documents
      (Windows-1252 users take note!).

    * Source Code is now always displayed if a page contains errors.

    * More error message now have explanations, and the explanations have
      been improved. We are still looking for contributions of more
      explanations and improvements of the existing explanations.

    * Many more Document Types are supported, and many DTDs have been
      updated to more recent versions.

    * An ecclectinc assortment of minor tweaks and changes that have
      accumulated over the past year; too numerous and finicky to be
      mentioned. :-)


C R E D I T S

    The W3C MarkUp Validator was created by Gerald Oskoboiny and is
    now maintained by members of the W3C QA Activity Team and external
    collaborators. The W3C Team Contacts for the W3C MarkUp Validator
    are Olivier Thereaux <ot@w3.org> and Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
    <dom@w3.org>. Much of the i18n code was written from scratch by
    Martin Dürst <duerst@w3.org>.

    Significant external contributions were made by many, including:

      * Aaron Swartz      * Jim Ley         * Nick Kew
      * Christian Smith   * Karl Dubost     * Olivier Thereaux
      * Dan Connolly      * Liam Quinn      * Sean Palmer
      * Hugo Haas         * Martin Dürst    * Ville Skyttä

    In addition, the developers would like to acknowledge the following
    people who have contrubuted suggestions, bug reports, and feeback:

    * Björn Hörhmann
    * Peter K. Sheerin

    As well as the many many good people on www-validator who have
    contributed of their time and experience to help improve the
    Validator. Many thanks to you all!



[0] - Please note that while we've made some advances towards making the
      MarkUp Validator Accessible, there are still likely to be many issues
      remaining and they probably will not be dealt with this time around.
      If you can volunteer any time towards helping us with this, please
      drop us a note to that effect. When we start the work -- in a future
      version -- we'll need help with the Accessibility aspects from the
      early development work and close cooperation with testers and
      collaborators with Accessibility experience.

[1] - Please note that the featureset for this release of the MarkUp
      Validator is largely frozen -- with a few key exceptions -- and
      any feedback on new features will go into the development effort
      for the next version (which will happen in paralell with
      maintenance releases).

-- 
Olivier Thereaux - W3C
http://www.w3.org/People/olivier | http://yoda.zoy.org

Received on Tuesday, 22 October 2002 17:30:23 UTC