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Re: [VE][137] Error Message Feedback

From: Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi>
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 10:07:03 +0300 (EEST)
To: Phil Hobson <ph2005@hcidata.com>
Cc: www-validator@w3.org
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.58.0504010957500.27383@korppi.cs.tut.fi>

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005, Phil Hobson wrote:

> Line 181, column 127: invalid comment declaration: found
> character "?" outside comment but inside comment declaration
>
> ....n at tinyonline.co.uk> 18-may 2001 --?

It's not obvious what happened (in the absence of a URL),
but presumably there was a construct <!-- somewhere so that
we are inside a comment declaration, and a comment was terminated
by the "--", and then the following "?" is indeed an error.

> "A common error is to include a string of hyphens ("---") within
> a comment. Authors should avoid putting two or more adjacent
> hyphens inside comments."

It is not _possible_ to include "---" or even "--" within a comment,
since "--" is a comment terminator. Inside a comment declaration,
on the other hand, "---" is correct in suitable circumstances, if
immediately followed by yet another "-":
<!--foo----bar-->

My suggestion of the wording:
"A common error is to try to use two or more adjacent hyphens
in a comment text, as in <!-- hello -- there! -->. In this case,
the second "--" terminates a comment."

-- 
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Received on Friday, 1 April 2005 07:07:06 UTC

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