Re: Public beta test of the W3C Markup Validator

Chris Lilley <chris@w3.org> wrote:

>A quick test (of a well-formed but non-valid UTF-8 encoded SVG
>document) revealed:
>
>    Note: The HTTP Content-Type field did not contain a "charset"
>    attribute, but the Content-Type was one of the XML text/*
>    sub-types. The relevant specification (RFC 3023) specifies a strong
>    default of "us-ascii" for such documents so we will use this value
>    regardless of any encoding you may have indicated elsewhere. If you
>    would like to use a different encoding, you should arrange to have
>    your server send this new encoding information.
>
>Firstly, that is neither desirable, nor an improvement.

I think that is arguable. What's happening is that the Validator is being
more strict about proper usage of the various way Character Encoding can be
specified.


>Plus, its arguably not true (the file was sent from local disk using
>file upload, so its a mystery where the 'HTTP Content-type' field came
>from or how it figured out that a 'text/*' type had been sent.

Since HTTP is the only protocol supported for uploading files to the
Validator, I think it's safe to assume that your browser used HTTP to
submit the file. No? :-)

IOW, your browser submitted the file with some text/* sub type (probably
text/html or text/xml), which has a strong default for us-ascii in the
absense of a specific character encoding indication.


However, it may be that the weak support for file uploads in current
browsers justifies special rules for files submitted via file upload. I'd
rather avoid having more special case rules then necessary, but it's an
avenue that could be explored if this turns out to be a problem.

The best option is of course to ensure that all servers and browsers
implement proper support for using HTTP Content-Type and the charset
attribute correctly.

-- 
"Violence accomplishes nothing."   What a contemptible lie!    Raw, naked
 violence  has  settled  more  issues  throughout  history than any other
 method ever employed.  Perhaps the city fathers of Carthage could debate
 the issue, with Hitler and Alexander as judges?

Received on Wednesday, 23 October 2002 03:53:37 UTC