Flagging & in URL in HTML 4.01 transitional type.

I just went to a bunch of unnecessary work -- due to the W3 validation
suite flagging unencoded '&' in a URL for the HTML 4.01 transitional type.

Since every browser in the world must tolerate &, my opinion is that
this is an artificially created tempest in a teapot, created by the
failure of the validation suite writer to provide a "pedantic" mode. Or
the failure of the specification writers to create an exception for this
in the transitional type.

If browsers didn't accept this construct, 98% of the web would break. A
significant portion of the web would break for the forseeable future
as well, so it is not a simple question of coalescing support to move
in the direction of compliance.

In my opintion that validation is pedantic, and should certainly not
be flagged in the HTML 4.01 transitional type.

I do appreciate the work of the W3 organization -- don't mistake that,
please.  In this case -- messy work, W3. Bad show.

-- 
Regards,
Mike Heins

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. -- Francis Bacon

Received on Friday, 8 June 2001 12:39:42 UTC