True, Patrick, it's not a teaching tool. But you do need to be able to find out what is correct if it says it's wrong.
The link in the big red bar doesn't link to a syntax reference at all, but a general document about XHTML and changes from html etc. I was looking for something to tell me specifically what is the valid syntax for a drop down select box, and I couldn't find one. Still can't. Can anyone tell me where to find the specific syntax for a select dropdown? Or any other tag? You can't find it from the validator page, and I'd have thought you ought to be able to. As it is, it's a bit like when your dad whacked you as a kid for doing something wrong. You wailed "what was that for?" and he says "you did something wrong - something to do with your clothes." and he wont tell you that you should have picked your clothes up off the bathroom floor after your shower. In my book that's poor parenting, and I think it would be a very simple task for W3C to add a link to the correct syntax somewhere in that validator tool. Now another possibility is that I couldn't see a link to the correct syntax that was right there in front of my face. Well after searching the validator results page for 30 minutes I couldn't see it, and if there was such a link, it's not very well designed. It ought to be obvious. So ... where DO I find a reference document showing the correct syntax for XHTML tags? Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com .com,.net,.org domains from AUD$20/Year -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick H. Lauke Sent: Tuesday, 26 October 2004 11:21 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WSG] Select form element doesnt validate Michael Kear wrote: > I figure if a validator is going to say "that's wrong" they > ought to provide a link so you can find out what's right. > > Don't you think? There are no less than 2 links to the exact specification of the doctype your document purports to use (one at the top, in the form, just next to the dropdown where you can force a different doctype, and one in the big brown/red bar that tells you when something is not valid). Also, the actual error messages are quite verbose if you read them properly. For example, in the case of "there is no attribute" type errors, you have, among other things: " How to fix: check the spelling and case of the element and attribute, (Remember XHTML is all lower-case) and/or check that they are both allowed in the chosen document type, and/or use CSS instead of this attribute." (and yes, in this case it was the lower-case issue that was to blame). Beyond that, it's a validating tool, not a teaching tool... Patrick H. Lauke ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
