RE: Ampersands + "Last modified:" Malfunctions

Hi Bruce!

>>> Thu, 22 Jun 2000 09:32:41 -0400 <bbailey@clark.net> >>>
>
> Others have corrected you about the use of &amp; -- CGI authors out
> there to don't have to stop programming in the commonly-accepted
> fashion, but page authors DO need to start linking to them
> correctly!  Did you try the proposed remedy before complaining that
> the validator was broken?

Of course.  For example:

> http://www.xlibris.com/XL/container.asp?element=display.asp&show=b&sku=784

displays my book, "9TimeZones.com" - while the proposed remedy:

> http://www.xlibris.com/XL/container.asp?element=display.asp&amp;show=b&amp;sku=784

shows a book called "The Seeker"!  While this difference may not 
occur in your browser, it does happen for 80% of my business 
associates, and for 100% of the browsers in the Glendale Public 
Library system.  As you might imagine, I can't ignore a discrepancy 
this large.  I know the W3C wants to eliminate solitary ampersands 
from link URLs, but whatever happened to the good old idea of 
"backward compatibility"?!

> You also reported  that:
> 
> > Also, when providing a direct link to the validation results:
> >  http://validator.w3.org/check/referer ,
> > the validator generates a "Last modified:" field which has nothing
> > to do with the page being validated.  In other words, the validator
> > indicates that any given page is being modified continuously!
> 
> The generated last modified value is correct on my pages.  Perhaps
> this is an idiosyncrasy of your server?

No, you're right - the W3C has repaired this malfunction since I 
reported it on June 3.

Thanks for your feedback!

Alan ia@apc.net
[not a list member]

Received on Thursday, 29 June 2000 12:47:36 UTC