[VE][63] New Error Message Suggestion

Well,

I got this message when I submitted this chunk,

<blockquote>
    [The MD5 algorithm] takes as input a message of arbitrary length and
    produces
    as output a 128-bit "fingerprint" or "message digest" of the input.
    It is conjectured that it is computationally infeasible to produce
    two messages having the same message digest, or to produce any
    message having a given prespecified target message digest. The MD5
    algorithm is intended for digital signature applications, where a
    large file must be "compressed" in a secure manner before being
    encrypted with a private (secret) key under a public-key cryptosystem
    such as RSA.
</blockquote>

If character data cannot follow a block quote, what CAN?

If the text has to be wrapped inside the block quote with a <p> </p>, 
why not say that?

Which is what appears to be needed.

with <blockquote><p> ... </p><blockquote> it seems to be happy.  Why 
this "<p></p>" is necessary escapes me.

But a specific message should be more like:

A container tag was expected, you have text (character data) somewhere 
it is not permitted to appear.  Mistakes that can cause this error 
include putting text directly in the  body of the document without 
wrapping it in a container element (such as  a <p>aragraph</p>) or 
forgetting to quote an attribute value  (where characters such as "%" 
and "/" are common, but cannot appear  without surrounding quotes). For 
example: a <blockquote> is not a container, and therefore the text 
within should be in a container like <p></p> or <div></div>

Instead of:
	1.  	Line 83, column 3: character data is not allowed here

    [The MD5 algorithm] takes as input a message of arbitrary length and

Help Wanted! Can you think of a better explanation for this  error 
message? Then please let us know by sending a message to the 
www-validator@w3.org list (be sure to quote the message number: #63).


  You have used character data somewhere it is not permitted to appear.  
Mistakes that can cause this error include putting text directly in the 
  body of the document without wrapping it in a container element (such 
as  a <p>aragraph</p>) or forgetting to quote an attribute value  
(where characters such as "%" and "/" are common, but cannot appear  
without surrounding quotes).

Just as a side note, far too often we take the easy road and do not 
have SPECIFIC error messages because so many are alike, so we take the 
easy road and reuse error messages without being specific to the EXACT 
error that occured.  In my case, the lack of the information that a 
block quote is not a container, well, how am I supposed to know?

Received on Saturday, 8 May 2004 08:37:40 UTC