Posted by Toby Inkster on 05/06/06 23:29

Jonathan N. Little wrote:

> <a name="italienskan-ligan"</a>
>
> Why did Validator not find this error, I do not know.

It wouldn't spot that "error" because it's technically valid. The SGML
declaration for HTML specifies "SHORTTAG YES" which allows for certain
shortcuts to be used. For example:

<b/Foo/ = <b>Foo</b>
<b>Foo</> = <b>Foo</b>
<b<i>Foo</</> = <b><i>Foo</i></b>
<ul<li>One<>Two<>Three</>
= <ul><li>One<li>Two<li>Three</ul>

The example quoted above is shorthand for

<a name="italienskan-ligan"></a>

Thus the validator will not complain. However, virtually no browsers
properly support the full SGML syntax, so on real web pages these
features should probably not be used.

There is however one SHORTTAG feature that is supported by real
browsers -- SHORTTAG is what allows you to leave out the quote marks
for certain attribute values. i.e.

<b class=bar>Foo</b> = <b class="bar">Foo</b>

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

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