Search BYTE.com Write to Byte Editorial Calendar Categories Previous Editions Columns Features Print Archives 1994-1998 About Us Byte Editorial Staff Advertise with Byte Privacy Policy Free E-mail Newsletter from BYTE.com Byte.com Update Text only ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Web Lessons Learned ------------------------------------------------------------------------ September 1996 / Inbox / Web Lessons Learned Thanks for another good Web Project column (July). One thing I would urge you to consider is regular Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) validation. The necessary Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) parsers are available at ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/sgml in both source and precompiled binary forms. The html-ncheck script provides a convenient interface to the SGML parser, nsgmls. It is regrettable that so few Web pages actually conform to the HTML grammar; humans definitely cannot get it right by hand, nor does most HTML-producing software. Too many people are j umping on the Netscape bandwagon and using extensions that are not part of the grammar and may be implemented by only one, or a few, browsers. With adherence to a rigorous gra mmar, we can have some confidence that our Web pages will be correctly viewable everywhere and will also be parsable by other software. Nelson H. F. Beebe Center for Scientific Computing University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT I've recommended HTML validators in the column. But I confess I've had a hard time integrating the rigorous use of them into what I do. I should, I know. Thanks for the reminder. -- Jon Udell, executive editor ------------------------------------------------------------------------ <#top> Copyright � 2003 CMP Media LLC , Privacy Policy , Terms of Service Site comments: webmaster@byte.com SDMG Web Sites: Byte.com , C/C++ Users Journal , Dr. Dobb's Journal , MSDN Magazine , New Architect , SD Expo , SD Magazine , Sys Admin , The Perl Journal , UnixReview.com , Windows Developer Network