[Bug 1500] XHTML-sent-as-text/html is parsed as XML

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=1500





------- Comment #6 from link@pobox.com  2006-08-15 07:42 -------
(In reply to comment #5)
> If you think this bug is INVALID or should be WONTFIXed, that's fine too; it
> will merely further underscore the points I made on www-tag. :-)

I will have to study this further, but I would initially guess this bug would
then end up as effectively WONTFIX for (to put it that way) essentially the
same reason as you outline on www-tag; marketshare.

The Validator was modified to have this behaviour in the wake of the release of
XHTML 1.0 when it became clear that XHTML 1.0 must be parsed as XML to be Valid
but in practice was always served as text/html. In order to practically support
XHTML 1.0, the Validator -- against my better judgement at the time, and to
much wailing and gnashing of teeth -- was modified to reintroduce "sniffing"
features I'd previously spent a considerable number of hours removing for the
various HTML 3.2/4.01 document types.

While the Validator does not take into account "marketshare" as the typical
browser vendor will understand the term, the basis for the decision was
evangelism (of Valid markup) and to stay relevant to the web community (rather
than ride a hobby horse).

In retrospect we (I) may have made the wrong decision on this. As you note, the
problem has only been compounded by letting "marketshare" dictate compliance in
the interrim and -- without in any way endorsing the approach taken by the WHAT
WG specification -- it is probably past time for the issue to be revisited and
to let the experience gained in the intervening years serve as a guide forward.

Received on Tuesday, 15 August 2006 07:42:39 UTC