validator barfs on Netscape Composer output

Hello,

I use Netscape Composer to edit my web pages. I tried to use the W3C
validator to look for broken links on my web site. But unfortunately,
the W3C validator generated a HUGE number of errors for my page. So many
errors, in fact, that I have more doubts about the validator than I do
about the Netscape editor.

The first thing it rejects is the DOCTYPE. Netscape puts this at the
top.

   <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">

The W3C validator completely freaked out over it so I replaced it with
this.

   <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
      "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">

I guess the validator is case sensitive!

Once I got past that hurdle, the validator complained about having COLS
in my table tag. It also complained about stuff like size=+1. Now maybe
this stuff is technically illegal but the web pages seem to work.

So my suggestions are:
1) correct the validator for things like case sensitive DOCTYPE
checking,
2) beat up Netscape to stop them from PRODUCING illegal code in their
Composer,
3) provide a "forgiving" or "non-anal" option in the validator that
passes commonly used code that is technically illegal. Only report truly
broken stuff.

THANKS

-- 
Phil Burk
SoftSynth.com
mailto:philburk@softsynth.com
http://www.softsynth.com

Received on Friday, 31 March 2000 20:38:50 UTC