Re: Extraneous Characters in Netscape Display

Alexander, Larry ([email protected])
Thu, 25 May 1995 13:15:27 +0500


>> I have been creating Web pages using the Netscape rules file in HoTMetaL
>> Pro. Problems appear when I have pages with special entities. Each file
>> begins with:
>>
>> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//Netscape Corp.//DTD HTML plus Tables//EN" >>
"html-net.dtd"
>> [
>> <!ENTITY pound CDATA "">
>> ]>
>>
>> When using NCSA Mosaic v2B4 everything looks fine. However, with Spry
Air >> or Netscape, I see:
>>
>> ]>
>>
>> at the head of each page.
>>
>> Is HoTMetaL doing something illegal with the !ENTITY declaration?

Paul Grosso wrote:
>The document type declaration--including the optional 'internal subset'
>(the part from [ to ] inclusive)--is valid SGML.

[snip]

>I also note, however, that the Public Identifier you show is not one
>of the valid choices given in the HTML 2.0 spec.

And then Walter wrote:

>I think what HoTMetaL Pro *should* do is place the extra stuff in a
>comment, and leave the doctype as standard HTML. SoftQuad, can you hear
>me? :)

I couldn't agree more with Walter's assessment. If I remove the Netscape
from the doctype, then I no longer have access in HoTMetaL Pro to the
Netscape specific tags such as <CENTER>, etc. Since the browsers generally
seem to ignore the doctype anyway, I could probably create my pages with
the Netscape doctype so HoTMetaL uses the correct rules file, and then
manually change the doctype to the standard default. Of course, I won't do
this... but it is tempting... ;-) SoftQuad, are you listening?

Larry