[ANN] CSS validator updated

Dear all,

We released today a new version of the CSS validator, tagged "nytrulce".

Use the CSS validator on the Web:
	http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Get/Browse the source:
	http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/2002/css-validator/
Install on your server/ use as commandline:
	http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/DOWNLOAD.html



**** Changes ****

This new version of the CSS validator welcomes 4 new languages in this  
increasingly "world wide" tool: Korean, Russian, Swedish and  
Portuguese (Brazilian) - all thanks to volunteer translators!

The code, too, has been worked on intensively in the past months.  
Since the previous release on March 12, 2008, more than 30 bugs have  
been fixed, requests addressed, suggestions translated into code.  
Among the major areas of work:

* This new version of the validator should be much easier to install  
on any server: download the source, run the ant builder, and all the  
prerequisite libraries will be installed automatically

* The previous version of the validator had an annoying tendency to  
crash ("ServletException: Timed out") when parsing some strange  
constructs. Most, if not all, of these cases have been addressed.

* The grammar used by the CSS validator to parse stylesheets has been  
massively reworked to conform very closely to the CSS 2.1 specification.

* Many other bugs were fixed, including bugs in the API, support for  
audio style sheets

* last but not least, a lot of the "less elegant" code of the  
validator got a cleanup. Some classes received a well-deserved  
performance boost, while some ugly hacks were told their services were  
no longer required.



**** Thank You ****

The CSS validator is a free, open source tools which relies on *us*,  
the Web community, to survive and get better. Many thanks are due to  
the many users, translators, bug reporters, patch contributors, and  
bearers of good ideas that made this release possible - some (but not  
all) of whom are listed in:
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/thanks.html

Beyond the great effort provided by the community, a lot of the burden  
of making this free tool falls on the W3C. Hosting and bandwidth are  
fairly heavy for these popular services, and as you can see above,  
coding does take up quite some time, too. If you use the validator  
frequently, rely on in in your company, or want to show your support  
for good, free open source tools, please consider making a donation,  
or become a sponsor:
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/Donate



**** What next? ****

There is still a lot of work ahead if we want to make the CSS  
validator truly reliable: our team plans to keep working hard on the  
core parser.

Another area clearly needing work is CSS3 support. The CSS3  
specifications are getting more mature, but the CSS validator does not  
yet have in store the latest changes in CSS3, making it rather poor at  
helping push for better CSS3 implementations. If you love CSS and  
aren't too scared by java code (no need to be a java expert), you  
would make a huge impact by volunteering a few hours of your time  
synchronising the CSS validator to the latest CSS3 specifications, and  
keeping the validator up to date.

Translators are also more than welcome: we always need help updating  
and adding bits of translation! And if you wish to translate the tool  
in your language, please visit: http://qa-dev.w3.org:8001/css-validator/translations.html
Coming soon: the next version of the validator will have a version in  
Farsi. Will it also include your native language?

The CSS validator is in Java, and java hackers are invited to come  
play with its codebase, send patches, or help code new features. If  
java is not your cup of tea, however, there are many other projects at  
W3C which could use your coding skills. For example:
* What about a CSS parser in javascript? That could be the basis for a  
new generation of tools.
* We're also looking at creating a "diff" utility for CSS. Python,  
java, javascript, perl etc. are still in the race for the actual  
implementation. This is a young project, feel free to join us in  
making it a reality.



Thank you,
olivier
-- 
olivier Thereaux - W3C - http://www.w3.org/People/olivier
W3C Open Source Software : http://www.w3.org/Status

Received on Tuesday, 10 February 2009 00:59:15 UTC