Re: A question/point of interest

Staff wrote:
> 
> When validating some of our pages which included the code <BASE
> target="main"> I went through the W3C validator and passed with flying
> colors.  However running the pages through a HomeSite validator pointed
> out that BASE has href as a required attribute.  Checking the HTML 4
> spec I find:
> 
> <!ELEMENT BASE - O EMPTY               -- document base URI -->
>  <!ATTLIST BASE
>    href        %URI;          #REQUIRED -- URI that acts as base URI --
>    >

That's for HTML 4.0 Strict.  HTML 4.0 Transitional specifies

<!ELEMENT BASE - O EMPTY               -- document base URI -->
<!ATTLIST BASE
  href        %URI;          #IMPLIED  -- URI that acts as base URI --
  target      %FrameTarget;  #IMPLIED  -- render in this frame --
  >

So the HREF attribute is not required in HTML 4.0 Transitional (or HTML
4.0 Frameset).

If your document specifies an HTML 4.0 Transitional or HTML 4.0 Frameset
DTD (through your DOCTYPE [1]), then what you're seeing is a bug in the
Homesite "validator" (which AFAIK is not a real validator [2]).

[1] http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html
[2] http://arealvalidator.com/real-validation.html

-- 
Liam Quinn
A Real Validator for Windows, http://arealvalidator.com
Web Design Group, http://www.htmlhelp.com

Received on Tuesday, 14 September 1999 17:32:41 UTC