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