Re: HTML and end tags

Bert Bos <bert@let.rug.nl>
Message-id: <9401071501.AA18562@freya.let.rug.nl>
From: Bert Bos <bert@let.rug.nl>
Subject: Re: HTML and end tags
To: koblas@netcom.com (David Koblas)
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 16:01:28 +0100 (MET)
Cc: www-talk@www0.cern.ch
In-reply-to: <199401071214.EAA11635@mail.netcom.com> from "David Koblas" at Jan 7, 94 04:14:21 am
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 |As best I understand HTML has some optional end tags for markup.
 |(i.e. it is optional to have a </P> after a <P>).
 |
 |Since presently I'm writing a HTML syntax checker (actually full
 |base parser), and I'm trying to track down all areas of "fuzzyness"
 |in an HTML document.  The <P> .. </P> is simply to ignore/understand,
 |but things get a little problimatic when faced with:
 |        <A NAME="Some Nice Name">
 |Since this is an anchor tag it really should have an </A> associated
 |with it, but they don't.  So at the very least this brings up the

According to the draft DTD for HTML+, the </a> end tag *is*
obligatory, unlike the </p>.

Since HTML+ will be defined by the DTD (unlike HTML, where a DTD was
added as an afterthought), there can be no "fuzzyness" in the syntax.
(Semantics is another matter.)

Btw., an HTML+ checker is nice, but why don't you use "sgmls"? It is
an SGML parser, so by implication it is also an HTML+ parser. In fact,
I use it routinely to check (and even generate!) the pages for our
soon to be announced WWW server.


Bert
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