RE: Prominence of Validation Confirmation Message...

At 11:43 PM -0500 7/12/00, ClintonGallagher wrote:
><!-- At 3:43 PM -0500 7/12/00, ClintonGallagher wrote:
><!-- >I would like to see "No Errors Found" confirmation
><!-- >displayed as the very first text on the page,
><!-- >displayed very large, displayed very bold.
><!-- I'm not sure why I see the point.  But you could always set up
><!-- your own validator and change the output message, surely?
><!-- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
><!-- http://www.kynn.com/
>Who the heck is Kynn Bartlett?

I assume that's rhetorical, as the answer is provided in the URL
above (my home page).

>Same question would be asked of me if I
>were to provide my own validation and since
>we are all generally anonymous on the net we lack
>credibility and any claim of validity would always be
>questionable.

Funny, but htmlhelp.com doesn't suffer the same problem.  And
webtechs didn't before either.  Do you know why?  Do you know what
a DTD is, and what SGML and XML are, and why nearly any validator
worth its salt can be considered credible?

>Further, if you really don't see the point you
>might consider putting some effort into the study
>of useability issues.

Ahhhh, _I_ see the problem here!

You're looking for validation as an _award_ of some kind, and thus
you want the results to be PROUDLY DISPLAYED for all to see!  You
view this as a flashy feather in your hat, and thus you want THE
W3C'S APPROVAL (in big letters, even!) on your work!

See, the problem here is that the W3C validator isn't meant to be
that.  It's not a brag server.  It's just a tool, to make sure your
HTML works and is valid.

As such, it does the job just fine, based on the purpose.  The purpose
isn't to impress your site visitors; it's a tool for _you_.  The
current output is sufficient for -that- purpose.

Now, as I noted before, the validator source code -is- publicly
available, and you -can- just download your own source, and set up
the service, but using a better interface that suits -your- needs.
Except, I guess, you feel that simply being -correct- about the
validity of documents is not enough; you need someone ELSE to
endorse you.  That's silly.  That shows you don't understand what
validity and standards are really all about.

--Kynn

PS:  The HTMLhelp validator is at http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/
      and I find it perfectly credible.  It's not based on Gerald's
      source code, by the way.
-- 
--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

Received on Thursday, 13 July 2000 01:08:10 UTC