Posted by John Hosking on 01/07/07 03:31

thedarkman wrote:
> http://www.ismichaelstoneguilty.org/m_s_stone_letter_october_20_2006.html
>
> the above page should exhibit the four options on consecutive lines but
> for some reason on the website two of the lines are merged as you can
> see. There doesn't appear to be any error in the coding. Can anyone
> sort this out?
>

Well, you can *say* there doesn't appear to be any error, but it doesn't
make it true. It doesn't even validate
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ismichaelstoneguilty.org%2Fm_s_stone_letter_october_20_2006.html
(or try http://tinyurl.com/yxdgsq), and that doesn't necessarily detect
any logic errors. It's just the *syntax*. But the code, my friend, is awful.

As it happens you've got something like this:
<h3><br>
<p><a href="blah1.html">To First Letter
<br><a href="blah2.html">To Second Letter</br>
<br><a href="blah3.html">Return To Correspondence Index</br>
<br><a href="blah4.html">Return To Site Index
</h3>

This is a very long <h3> element (although it's not really a heading,
it's a list of four links). The first element in the <h3> is a
line-break. Then you've got a paragraph (for some non-reason) which
looks like it's going to contain a link. The <a> element is started
(blah1), but never finished. After the text "To First Letter" there
comes a <br>, which really is a line-break.

Then a second link (blah2) starts (again without closing tag) with the
text "To Second Letter". Next comes a thing spelled </br>, which isn't
really anything, but appears to be treated by some browsers as a
line-break. Then there follows a <br>, which really is a line-break. So
that's two line-breaks following the second link.

Similar chaos ensues after the third (likewise unclosed) <a> link,
before finishing the train wreck with (1) the lack of a terminating </a>
for the fourth link; (2) the lack of a </p> (not formally required).

Additionally, the page starts with two never-terminated <font> elements
and a spurious closing </center> tag.

You're lucky a browser shows you *anything*.

HTH
--
John

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