Re: Character set validation

Nick:
I was about to post the URL, but I ran the page through the validator one
more time and the problem appears to have been fixed. Now the only errors I
get are in the HTML.
Thanks for responding,

~ Kathleen Anderson
Spider Web Woman Designs
http://www.spiderwebwoman.com
email: kathleen@spiderwebwoman.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Kew" <nick@webthing.com>
To: "Kathleen Anderson" <kathleen@spiderwebwoman.com>
Cc: <www-validator@w3.org>
Sent: March 04, 2001 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: Character set validation


>
> OK, this charset problem has been reported by enough people to convince
> me there's a bug, and that it's probably not the same as the one I mention
> below.  So I'm going to repost my reply to Kathleen from ciwah.
>
> ======
> > Hi:
> > I was directed to this group by http://validator.w3.org/feedback.html
> >
> > Does anyone know why this charset:
> >
> > <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
> > charset=windows-1252">
>
> You also posted to the validator mailing list, which is probably the best
> place for this (I didn't respond there for reasons that should become
> apparent in a moment).
>
> Now there are two parts to this:
>   (1) The construct you are using is fundamentally nonsense.
>   (2) Nevertheless, it is perfectly valid, and what you describe appears
>       to be a validator bug.
> I'd like to add a third a third part: I recollect fixing a bug in my
> own validator (Page Valet) that was triggered by a windows-1252 charset.
> Unfortunately I can't recollect enough about this to relate it to
> your report, which I'd like to do before replying to the list.
>
> Going back to the main points:
> (1) The construct <meta ...> is part of HTML.  Content-Type is an
> HTTP header.  If content-type is not text/html, then the document
> cannot be treated as HTML, and <meta ...> has no HTML meaning.
> If content-type is text/html, then it has already been declared by
> the server, and for a browser or other agent to use the <meta ...>
> in place of the HTTP header would be illegal.
> (2) In view of (1), the validator is wrong to take any notice at all
> of your charset declared in <meta ...>.  The fact that this is causing
> it to fall over is secondary.  All the validator should do here is
> check your syntax, which happens to be correct.
>
> Of course, without a URL, I cannot confirm anything, so this
> analysis is purely speculative.
> ====
>
>
> --
> Nick Kew
>
> Is your site a lawsuit waiting to happen?
> See <URL:http://valet.webthing.com/intranet/> before it's too late.
>
>
>

Received on Monday, 5 March 2001 08:45:23 UTC