[thelist] Fwd: Re: icab validator problem?

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know, but I found it 
enlightening.

Erika


>Subject: Re: icab validator problem?
>Date: Mon, 19 Jun 00 15:58:01 +0200
>x-sender: aclauss@pop.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de
>From: Alexander Clauss <aclauss@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de>
>To: "Erika Meyer" <erika@seastorm.com>
>
>  >Mr. Clauss:
>  >
>  >I'm including one (of a few) responses I got to my question from a
>  >web design mailing list.
>  >
>  >It seems to me, over the course of discussing this over the list,
>  >that part of the problem was a discrepancy between the HTML4 and 4.01
>  >spec.  But I may be confused.
>
>No, not really. The problem is a discrepancy between different versions
>of the 4.01 specs. "My" version of the HTML 4.01 specs which I used for
>iCab developement still uses "pixels" for WIDTH in TD and TH tags. I think
>one revision later of the same specification did change this and will now
>define this as "lengths". IMHO they should have called the new revision
>HTML 4.02 to make clear that there are some differences.
>
>I'll update iCab so that it will no longer warn about the percentage
>values
>when using the HTML 4.01 DTD.
>
>  >iCab is the only browser I know of that even cares about DTDs.  I
>
>iCab only cares for the error report. So iCab does support many things
>which are not allowed even if they are listed in the error report.
>For example iCab does evaluate percentage values as well, even if they
>are not allowed (up to HTML 4.0 and the first revisions of 4.01).
>
>  >Finally, I still don't know why the w3c validator did not mention the
>  >"width" attribute as a "problem" with my HTML 4.0 DTD.  That will
>  >have to remain a mystery, I suppose.
>
>The Validator can't validate most attibute values. This is because nearly
>all "data types" like "pixels", "lenghts" etc. are just defined as
>"CDATA". All the restrictions (pixel values only, URI values only etc.)
>can't be expressed in the language of the DTD and are only mentioned
>in the comments or in the HTML specification itself. So the validator
>can't evaluate these because for the validator all these attributes are
>just "CDATA".
>
>So you can write <TD WIDTH="100"> or <TD WIDTH="100%"> or
><TD WIDTH="hundred"> or <TD WIDTH="large"> or <TD WIDTH="foo">
>and the validator won't be able to find an error.
>
>
>Regards,
>Alexander Clauss

erika@seastorm.com
http://www.seastorm.com