On validator and reality

The validator marks any attributes which used to be in the html standard,
but were removed by people with good intentions, as errors.

This is not a usable response as a validator.

Real world applications must be written to produce usable displays on 
Browsers which
were produced BEFORE any given standard.

So a robust application, to set background color, you basically have to 
set it both the
old and the new way.

Now the document resulting does not match any standard, yet the browsers 
handle it
just fine, interpreting the standards they were built to display.

So a USEFUL validator, should distinguish between use of prior 
standards, and actual errors
which were never valid.

A USEFUL tool would meaningfully validate documents which are written to 
span html1 to html5.
Tagging deprecated features would be very useful. Treating deprecated 
features as errors
is not going to change the real world requirements for browsers to be 
flexible, and
web designers to design for multiple incarnations of browsers.

Deliberate use of deprecated features to achieve correct display on 
Browsers
which by definition must lag behind changes, is NECESSARY. a Useful 
validator
will show what the real world Browsers will see as Broken.

Any change in the standard makes every browser out of date.

IE ALL browsers are out of date. Validate that. Its real, and unchangeable.


-- 

*peace,
bill kelley
512 266 1896 *