The problem with putting the burden of validation on the server is that
authors will continue to create invalid documents unaware that there
are errors in their work. This is because authors use browsers to
"check" what they write -- and if it looks OK on the screen, it must be
OK. Unfortunately, most current browsers apply various heuristics and
tricks to work around errors in invalid document instances in order to
display as much information as possible, thereby giving the author a
false impression that their document is valid.
I don't see the general practice of folks using browsers to validate
documents changing -- since authors *do* want to check how the
information is displayed on screen, a separate step of validation will
surely be considered too cumbersome for the average author. Folks won't
want to both validate their documents with a validator/sgml parser, and
then "validate" its appearance with a browser. Also keep in mind that the
average author does not care about functional markup or valid document
instances -- all they want is to present their information organized
and formatted in a certain way, and to do so as simply as possible.
The only practical solution is to make the browser the validator. I
think that as more functionality is added to HTML, including style
sheets, etc. a full sgml parser embedded within a browser will be a
useful (if not necessary) addition and will more than compensate for
any size or performance hits (which I doubt will be too great).
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Patrick Stickler Email: [email protected]
Senior Computer Systems Engineer Phone: (407) 356-9852 Office
Information Group 356-6094 Lab 1
Martin Marietta Corporation 356-7725 Lab 2
MP1270, 12506 Lake Underhill Rd. 356-5685 Lab 3
Orlando, Florida 32825 U.S.A. Fax: (407) 356-8949
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