Re: Simple suggestion

Way to be snide!  Gee, too bad that a free (and fairly user-friendly)
error-checking tool doesn't completely hold your hand through
everything, huh?  That giant menu bar on the right side of the home page
doesn't give you any navigational help or anything, either.  The authors
sure must suck. 

Seriously, I guess you might want to realize that the validator isn't
really intended as an [X]HTML tutorial; it's just a program that automates
the process of checking the correctness of what you've written.  You
don't expect your C++ compiler's error messages to teach you how to
program, do you?  An automated checker can notice things you might have
overlooked, and maybe even jog your memory if you've forgotten about
some minor rule, but you can't really expect it to be a substitute for
having a basic understanding of what you're supposedly doing.

If you don't know what a doctype is, then you probably need a reference
or tutorial on HTML and/or XHTML more than you need a validator.  I'm
sure you'll find it easier to learn in a structured manner than to try
to pick it up from error the error messages. 

For a good tutorial, consider looking at http://www.w3schools.com/

For a view of the applicable standards, you can take a look at: 
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/


Thus spake Tom Nicolazzo (nicolazzo5@hotmail.com):

> 
> Hi!  I used your Validator today -- sounds like a good name for the next 
> Schwarzenegger movie!   Accordingly, I got a Fatal Error!  I hadn't used 
> any "doc type".  I was kindly provided with links to a couple of pages that 
> explained what "doc types" are.  So I put one in.  Not the *right* one, 
> apparently, but now that one is there, I can't find the pages explaining 
> what they are!
> 
> As a web developer with nearly three months under my belt, I hate to 
> criticize your site (you believe me, right?)  But some sort of 
> <i>navigation</i> would be nice!  A "site map" or something.
> 
> Ok, I know!  I only changed *one* page  on my site.  I can go and ask for a 
> validation for a page without any "doc type".  *Then* I'll be able to find 
> your page that attempts to explain a little about them.  Easy!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Tom
> 
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-- 
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| Eric W. Anderson                   E-Mail:  anderson@cs.uoregon.edu |
| Computer and Information Science    Phone:  (541)346-1381           |
| University of Oregon                 USPS:  Computer Science Dept.  |
|                                             University of Oregon    |
| http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~anderson/        Eugene, OR 97403-1202   |
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Received on Sunday, 12 October 2003 20:15:56 UTC