> Seems kinda sad, and most of the docs that do not pass can be easily
> fixed without changing the page appearance, so perhaps the problem lies
> either in carelessness or ignorance. It does seem, though, that most
> writers of HTML docs really don't care as long as the page looks okay
> in Mosaic and NetScape.
For me it is a combination of ignorance and lack of time. When I first
started writing HTML, the CERN documentation said nothing about header
information. Then someone passing themselves as authoritative said "use
<!DOCTYPE...>", then someone else passing themselves off as
authoritative said "use <HTML>" at the start of your documents, then
people started talking about <HEADER> and <BODY>, then people just
started arguing. I gave up at this point. My intention was that when
everybody got around to stop arguing about DTDs and Mosaic, I would have
another look at it, and figure out what the "correct" way to do things
really was, and change my documents and programs. I never really got
around to it, though.
I have no problem writing correct documents, and I fully intend to
give sgmls another go, but so much contradictory and confusing
information has been flying around (and STILL IS) that it's not a
trivial thing to figure out what is "correct".
As a user of many different browsers, a writer of a reasonable amount
of HTML, and a author of several HTML generation/conversion utilities.
I do _want_ to get it right.
rik.
-- The Fulcrum Consulting Group o ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rik Harris - rik.harris@fulcrum.com.au +61 3 621-2100 (BH) /\ 12th Floor, 10-16 Queen St. Melbourne VIC 3000. +61 3 621-2724 (Fax)