[QA IG] Validators

This is an excerpt of W3C QA IG F2F minutes of Mandelieu, France,  
27/28 February 2006
Each topic indivually given to help the discussion.
http://www.w3.org/QA/2006/03/minutes_of_qa_ig_f2f_at_the_w3.html


Validators
http://www.w3.org/QA/2006/03/minutes_of_qa_ig_f2f_at_the_w3#validators

    W3C hosts a number of free public tools that allow developers and
    maintainers of web documents to check them for conformance.
      * Markup validator (HTML and XHTML, SVG or MathML)
      * CSS validator
      * RDF validator
      * Feed validator (developed at Sourceforge) - hosted by W3C

    See the [50]full list of individual tools.

      [50] http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools

    We're now running into discrepancies between the ways in which the
    tools work. Markup validator is based on SGML parser (doesn't handle
    XML very well) but the CSS validator is based on a better XML
    parser. (So, Markup validator might pass something that CSS
    validator will reject.). UIs were different. Over the past 6 months,
    much of the work has been done to harmonize the tools.

    Major effort is under way to provide simple programmable (SOAP)
    interfaces to these tools. Current status:
      * CSS: in production
      * Feed: in production
      * Markup: still in development

    These SOAP interfaces have enabled, for example, the creation of a
    single AJAX-based front-end to the both the Markup and CSS
    validators. In future, additional checks could be added (assuming
    that other tools are available with SOAP interfaces). Tools are
    written in different languages (PERL, Java, Python) - SOAP allows us
    to unify. Tools are developer by volunteers, mostly in Europe. The
    Markup validator mailing list has several hundred subscribers. A
    hard-core of supporters provide help. CSS also has a mailing list
    too. RDF validator was not actively managed but Jeremy Carroll (HP)
    has now agreed to take this on.

    There is an appeal to members for assistance with development and
    maintenance. We need to encourage member companies to use the W3C
    validators. Some packages are made available for in-house
    installation (sometimes through distributions like linux flavours)
    if there are concerns about passing internal documents to an outside
    instance of the validator. It's hoped that as usage increases some
    companies will contribute resources for development or bug-fixing.

    Some years ago people considered the Markup validator to be the
    "reference" for HTML rather than the HTML specifications themselves.
    Now people have understood that this is just a tool.

    We might create a low traffic "announcement" list for all validators
    which would complement the RSS feed of the [51]W3C Open Source
    software page. We could also look at avenues like VersionTracker,
    Freshmeat, etc.

      [51] http://www.w3.org/Status

    ACTION: Olivier to investigate new avenues to advertise new releases
    of validators


-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:09:39 UTC