Re: Validator bug in parsing LINK and META tags

Umpa lump wrote:

> There is a certain bug in Validator. When parsing LINK and META tags:
> Validator returns error when one of above tag is closed with "/>", but
> everything works fine were closing with ">"
> eg:
> in source code:
>      '<meta http-equiv="content-style-type" content="text/css" />'
>                                                                 ^
> returns error: "character data is not allowed here"

It's not a bug, it's the SGML SHORTTAG feature.  In HTML (not XHTML) The 
trailing '/' before the '>' actually closes the tag, and closes the 
whole element in the case of EMPTY elements, such as meta and link. 
Therefore, the '>' is actually a character after the meta element and in 
the head, where there is no character allowed.  See appendix B [1] of 
the HTML 4.01 spec for a brief description of SHORTTAG.

If your going to use the XML syntax, then you should use an XHTML 
DOCTYPE.  If you're going to use an HTML 4 DOCTYPE, then don't use the 
XML syntax for empty elements.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/appendix/notes.html#h-B.3.7

-- 
Lachlan Hunt
http://www.lachy.id.au/

Received on Wednesday, 8 September 2004 08:35:54 UTC