[ANN] Markup Validator 0.8.4 released

Dear all,

I am thrilled to announce today the release of a new version of the
W3C Markup Validation Service, also known as "HTML Validator".

Use it online

        http://validator.w3.org/

.... or download it: it is Free and Open Source

        http://validator.w3.org/source/

The new version, 0.8.4 may sound like a very minor step from the
version 0.8.3 released in August, but this new release of the W3C
Markup Validator brings some very important change: in addition to
checking documents against etablished standards such as HTML 4.01 and
XHTML 1.0, the validator can now check documents for conformance to
HTML5, thanks to the integration with the Validator.nu html5 engine.

HTML5 is still work in progress and support for this next generation
of the publishing language of the World Wide Web will remain
experimental. The integration of the html5 engine in the validator
should provide experimentation grounds for those interested in trying
on authoring in this new version of HTML, as well as a feedback
channel for the group working on building a stable, open standard.



                   **** Changes ****

The main changes for this version include:

* Experimental Feature: HTML5 Support! 

* Bug Fix: version 0.8.3 came with a programming mistake that would
  not affect validation, but would flood the logs of the validator
  server with warnings.

* Bug Fix - Document type support. A Typo in the machine-readable
  grammar published with the latest specification for XHTML1.1 caused
  spurrious validation errors when checking documents against
  XHTML1.1. fixing the typo solves the issue. Another fixed typo now
  makes the validation against the historical HTML i18n document type
  functional.

* Documentation updates and fixes: the installation documentation used
  a misspelled option for the installation of the OpenSP parser. The
  correction should make installation of the validator a little
  easier. Also relevant to installing the validator, the sample
  validator configuration now includes a documentation of environment
  variables affecting connectivity.

As usual, a list of the changes, along with link to more information
on bug fixes and new features, is available on the validator's new
page at http://validator.w3.org/whatsnew.html



                  **** Installation Notes ****

The validator is free and open source, and anyone is welcome to dowload 
it and use on a local server. All the options for getting the software 
are listed at http://validator.w3.org/source/ and the installation
instructions are at: http://validator.w3.org/docs/install.html

Specific to this version 0.8.4, you may want to install a local instance
of the HTML5 Conformance checker. Just follow the instructions over at:
http://about.validator.nu/#src

Depending on your system, you may encounter some errors whenever 
"revalidating". In order to avoid those, try to make sure that your
system uses a version of libwww-perl (a.k.a LWP) under 5.814. If you
have a version that is too recent, note that a fix for LWP has been 
found, and should be released soon.

Finally, if you want to use the integration with the HTML5 engine, you
will need a fairly recent version of the libxml2 library:
http://xmlsoft.org/downloads.html
Most “stable” server systems come with libxml2 version 2.2.16, which is
way… too… old… and will break if you try to use the HTML5 validation. 



             **** Thanks to all Contributors! ****

As an open-source software project, this Validator exists thanks to all
YOUR help, contributions and feedback. For this release, special thanks
go, in no particular order, to Henri Sivonen and all the contributors to
the Validator.nu engine, Ville Skyttä, Frank Ellermann, Etienne Miret
and Moto Ishizawa for patches and help, as well as the community of
users and contributors on the www-validator@w3.org mailing-list and the
bugzilla.

Now more than ever, the validators need YOU. Millions use these tools
daily to make the Web a better, more usable, more interoperable and
accessible place, and these projects can use help from all, be it for
bug hunting, documentation, user support, translations, etc.

The future of this validator is open: you will see an updated roadmap
and vision for the validator at:
http://validator-test.w3.org/todo.html - but the future will be what
we make of it. Don't hesitate to use this mailing-list to discuss new
ideas, the bug tracker to report issues, or the wiki to draft a more
compelling vision for the future.

List:     http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/
Bugzilla: http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/
Wiki:     http://esw.w3.org/topic/MarkupValidator

For an overview of feedback mechanisms for the validator, see:
http://validator.w3.org/feedback.html


On a more personal note, I would like to thank the validators' community
for a great past few years of working together. It is quite likely that
this will be the last HTML Validator release I oversee, and looking back, 
this has truly be a one of a kind adventure, sometimes frustrating, 
often exhausting, always inspiring.

You are not, however, entirely rid of me just yet! In the weeks to come,
I will assist the W3C staff in securing funding, building up a fresh 
team, and dreaming up the future of our tools - all this with close 
collaboration with this community and the Web community at large.


Many thanks,
olivier. 
-- 
olivier Thereaux - W3C - http://www.w3.org/People/olivier
W3C Open Source Software : http://www.w3.org/Status

Received on Thursday, 20 November 2008 20:11:14 UTC