Validating pages that include Flash

I've been fighting the validator for about 6 hours now, and frankly, I'm
about to give up.

I can rewrite everything on my pages to validate except the Embed tag
required for Flash to work with the NS/Mozilla family of browsers. I
have visited dozens of Flash authoring sites seeking a solution, and met
many people with the same problem as me, but no answers, which lead me
to think this is and issue this list needs to be aware of, and might
well be something that warrants a place in the FAQ.

As far as I can tell, the available options are:

1) Exclude all NS/Mozilla users from my flash content just to please the
validator (which will happen over my dead body)

2) Write a custom DTD that allows for the Embed tag (which appears to be
a] next to impossible for a beginner and b] seems to miss the point of
validating to W3C standards) 

3) Hide the Embed in a javascript js write (which is a] cheating and b]
something I can't do because the high level of accessibility I'm aiming
for precludes javascript)

4) Convince the W3C that html is supposed to be an extensible language
and therefore when an unknown tag is encountered it should be ignored
(seems unlikely)

5) Convince the W3C that the Embed tag is valid html (seems even more unlikely)

6) Appeal to the people in charge of the validator for guidance (hence
this mail)

7) Skip validation entirely and get on with writing pages that work in
the 'Real World' but don't validate (currently my preferred option, but
presumably not the W3Cs?)

8) Something I haven't thought of

So, what should I do?

- Andy_R

Received on Monday, 12 April 2004 14:12:48 UTC