Re: name attribute in form tag does not error in HTML 4.01 Strict

Jens Brueckmann wrote:

> the validator is right,

In this issue it is: it analyzes the document according to the applicable 
Document Type Definition. This is all that matters in the issue of 
validation. Whether the DTD is stupid, violates prose requirements in a 
standard, or is just a bad joke does not matter.

> the name attribute has not been deprecated in
> HTML 4.01 Strict,

Deprecation as such is irrelevant in validation. "Deprecation" is a loose 
(informal) concept. Mostly the authors of HTML 4.01 specs decided to exclude 
from the Strict DTD features they designated as "deprecated". But that's 
irrelevant in validation; what matters is what they actionally excluded or 
included.

> "name = cdata [CI]
> This attribute names the element so that it may be referred to from
> style sheets or scripts. Note. This attribute has been included for
> backwards compatibility. Applications should use the id attribute to
> identify elements."

This is an example of the vagueness of the HTML 4.01 spec. The statement 
deprecates the name attribute in this context, but it does not use the word 
"deprecate". According to the loose definition at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/conform.html#deprecated
we can still call it deprecated. But they decided to include it in the 
Strict DTD, though.

-- 
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Received on Friday, 10 April 2009 09:07:51 UTC