diff options
| author | link <link@localhost> | 2001-02-23 09:06:49 +0000 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | link <link@localhost> | 2001-02-23 09:06:49 +0000 |
| commit | 1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7 (patch) | |
| tree | f5e1a6c0fb011a12c5371b646486ff9dbad4a887 /htdocs/docs/help.html | |
| parent | 0d8ea0eb2b620b0ab52500d3d52f7cd3d8acf787 (diff) | |
| download | markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.zip markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.tar.gz markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.tar.bz2 | |
Checking in documentation. Mostly just importing (cleaned up versions of)
Scott Bigham's original FAQ/docs. New additions: a User Manual and information
for developers. All files use the (also new) base stylesheet.
Diffstat (limited to 'htdocs/docs/help.html')
| -rwxr-xr-x | htdocs/docs/help.html | 106 |
1 files changed, 106 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/htdocs/docs/help.html b/htdocs/docs/help.html new file mode 100755 index 0000000..277916a --- /dev/null +++ b/htdocs/docs/help.html @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + + <head> + <title>W3C HTML Validation Service Help</title> + <link rev="made" href="mailto:gerald@w3.org" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/base.css" /> + <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, Validation, + W3C HTML Validation Service" /> + <meta name="description" content="W3C's easy-to-use HTML validation + service, based on an SGML parser." /> + <meta name="revision" content="$Id: help.html,v 1.1 2001-02-23 09:06:49 link Exp $" /> + <meta name="modified" content="$Date: 2001-02-23 09:06:49 $" /> + </head> + + <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000ee" vlink="#551a8b"> + <h1><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img align="left" + src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home" height="48" border="0" + alt="W3C" /></a> HTML Validator Help</h1> + <p align="right" class="navbar"> + <a href="about.html">About this service</a> | + <a href="whatsnew.html">What's new</a> | + <a href="source/">Source code</a> | + <a href="feedback.html">Feedback</a><br clear="right"/> + <a href="file-upload.html">Upload files</a> | + <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/">www-validator + archives</a> | + <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/">CSS validator</a> | + <a href="checklink">Link checker</a><br clear="right"/> + <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/">HTML Tidy</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/">HTML home</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/">HTML 4.01</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/">XHTML 1.0</a> + <br clear="all" /> + </p> + <div> + <h2 id="what-is-it">What does The Validator do?</h2> + The Validator is sort of like <code>lint</code> for C. It compares + your HTML document to the defined syntax of HTML and reports any + discrepancies. + </div> + <div> + <h2 id="why-validate">Why should I validate my HTML pages?</h2> + <p> + One of the important maxims of computer programming is: <q>Be + conservative in what you produce; be liberal in what you accept.</q> + </p> + <p> + Browsers follow the second half of this maxim by accepting Web pages + and trying to display them even if they're not legal HTML. Usually + this means that the browser will try to make educated guesses about + what you probably meant. The problem is that different browsers (or + even different versions of the same browser) will make different + guesses about the same illegal construct; worse, if your HTML is + <em>really</em> pathological, the browser could get hopelessly + confused and produce a mangled mess, or even crash. + </p> + <p> + That's why you want to follow the first half of the maxim by making + sure your pages are legal HTML. The best way to do that is by + running your documents through one or more HTML validators. + </p> + </div> + <div><h2 id="others">What other validators are there?</h2><p>FIXME</p></div> + <div> + <h2 id="how">How does The Validator work?</h2> + The Validator is based on <a href="http://www.jclark.com/">James + Clark</a>'s <code><a href="http://www.jclark.com/sp/">nsgmls</a></code> + SGML parser. The Validator itself is a CGI script that fetches your + URL, passes it through <code>nsgmls</code>, and post-processes the + resulting error list for easier reading. + </div> + <div> + <h2 id="choosing-dtd">How do I set The Validator to validate in + HTML2/HTML3/Netscape mode?</h2> + Unlike WebTechs, The Validator does not allow you to select a document + type on the fly. If your document is not intended to be HTML + 2.0-compliant, you must add a corresponding <code>DOCTYPE</code> + declaration to your document; see <a href="sgml.html#doctype">the + section on <code>DOCTYPE</code></a> for more information. If your + document does not have a <code>DOCTYPE</code> declaration, The + Validator will assume an HTML 4.0 document type (and will tell + you it is doing so). + </div> + <div> + <h2 id="munged-doctype">Help! The Validator spewed a zillion error + messages on my page!</h2> + <p> + Don't panic. Did The Validator complain about your + <code>DOCTYPE</code> declaration (or lack thereof)? Make sure your + document has a syntactically correct <code>DOCTYPE</code> + declaration, as described in the <a href="sgml.html#doctype">section + on <code>DOCTYPE</code></a>, and make sure it correctly identifies + the type of HTML you're using. Then run it through The Validator + again; if you're lucky, you should get a lot fewer errors. + </p> + <p> + If this doesn't help, then you may be experiencing a cascade failure + — one error that gets The Validator so confused that it can't + make sense of the rest of your page. Try correcting the first few + errors and running your page through The Validator again. + </p> + </div> + </body> +</html> |