Re: XHTML validation

Christian Smith:

> Bertilo was just expressing a common aggravation which many people wanting
> to use the W3C validator are running into. Currently the W3C validator can
> not handle XHTML. This is fairly obvious given the output from just about
> any input. All it currently provides is a well-formedness check which is
> (in all honesty) just about completely useless. 

Actually it's worse. As things are now - no warning that the validator
does not handle the current norm for HTML - a blatant lie about validness -
claims on other pages that XHTML is being handled - makes the validator
dangerous. People are probably right now - in good faith - putting XHTML 
pages on line which are full or mistakes, but which still carry the W3C 
validator's "Valid XHTML!" icon.

Actually there is _no working XHTML validator out there now_. All that
I have tried are seriously broken, and the one at W3C is by far the worst.

When did XHTML 1.0 become a W3C recommendation? In January, right?
It's June now.
 
> Work needs to be done on the W3C validator if it is ever going to be able
> to validate XHTML. Read this message from Gerald Oskoboiny that addresses
> this issue to some extent:

> <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2000JanMar/0166.html>

That discussion does not really adrress the current issue. It only talks
about a few special cases where errors might slip through.
 
> That all said, if you want to validate your XHTML files right now, try the
> HTMLHelp validator at

> <http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/>

You could try it all right, but it's broken. Try it on this test page:

  <http://www.concinnity.se/bertilow/div/testform.htm>

Tidy is broken too...

#####################################################################
                         Bertilo Wennergren
                 <http://purl.oclc.org/net/bertilo>
                     <bertilow@hem.passagen.se>
#####################################################################

Received on Tuesday, 13 June 2000 01:53:38 UTC