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Posted by Toby Inkster on 06/25/06 09:59
Jonathan N. Little wrote:
> Bug. Not the first time.
It's not a bug. For HTML the W3C validator is virtually bug-free. It has
one or two limitations when dealing with XML, but that's about it.
As David Dorwood pointed out,
<a href=http://example.org/>Example</a>
is actually *invalid*, but
<a href=http://example.org/>Example
is (perhaps surprisingly) *valid*! But neither means what you think it
might mean. The reason for this is SGML's "SHORTTAG" feature which allows
for a few odd-looking shorthands for common contructs. For example:
<b/Text/
is shorthand for:
<b>Text</b>
Similarly:
<a href=http://example.org/>Example</a>
is shorthand for:
<a href="http:"></a>example.org/>Example</a>
And note now that you have two closing "</a>" tags, which is why it's
invalid.
The rule to take away from this is to quote attribute values. That is:
<a href="http://example.org/">Example</a>
which will mean exactly what you expect it to mean. There are occasions
when it's OK in HTML to leave out the quote marks, but it's never harmful
to include them; so if you're unsure, always include the quote marks.
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
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