[VE][73] New Error Message Suggestion

Regarding this error message:

/==================================================
 end tag for "ul" which is not finished

 <ul class='categories'></ul>
\==================================================


The beta validator noted:

/==================================================
Help Wanted! This message (#73) has no explanation yet. If you can think of
a succinct way to explain the possible situations that will trigger this
error and how to fix it, please consider writing it down and sending it to
the www-validator@w3.org list.
\==================================================


"is not finished" is not a very good description, doesn't make much sense (I
first thought it was complaining about a missing closing brace on the end
tag), and certainly provides no clue as to how to solve the problem.

A better error message might be:

/==================================================
 "ul" requires at least one child "li".  This "ul" had none.
\==================================================


More detail could include a quote from the DTD[1]:

/==================================================
 As required in the XHTML 1.0 Transitional DTD:

   <!ELEMENT ul (li)+>

 The "ul" element must have at least one "li" element inside.
\==================================================


Hopefully this feedback will aid with the crafting of an easier to
understand and more helpful error message.

Thanks,

Tantek


[1]
 http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd

Received on Thursday, 18 September 2003 12:52:48 UTC