Re: [ic] interchange html4 validation problems

[Murray Gibbins <Murray@scotweb.ltd.uk>]

Mike Heins wrote:

> If you can explain why that is not valid HTML4, perhaps then we can explain
> why it is generated that way. Until then, quit accusing.

wellllll, first W3C HTML Validation Service said this....

----snip

Below are the results of attempting to parse this document with an SGML parser. 

       Line 27, column 64: 

         ... eb.ltd.uk/carn/catalog?id=HTFrVqjK&mv_pc=1"><img src="/shopp ...
                                                ^

       Error: unknown entity "mv_pc" (explanation...)

----snip

and this at http://validator.w3.org/docs/errors.html#bad-entity

----snip

general entity `FOO' not defined and no default entity" 

The Validator has found an entity (something like &this;) that it doesn't
recognize. There are a few possibilities: 

.....
A URL for a CGI program that uses `&' as a separator, such as
"http://host/prog?x=1&y=2";. This is a common problem: the inventors of CGI
didn't think things through very carefully when they decided to use the '&'
character as a separator between CGI arguments, because '&' has special status
in HTML. One way to get around this is for the author of the CGI program to use
a different value between arguments, like ';' or '|', which would allow the link
to be coded as <img src="http://site/cgi?opt1=val1;opt2=val2";> or whatever. 

   Please contact the maintainer of the CGI program you are linking to, and ask
them to use a different character for their separator. (Normally this is
extremely easy to add to the CGI program; multiple characters can also be used
so existing links using the '&' character will still work.) 

 There is also a simple workaround described at
<URL:http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/problems.html#amp>.
 Simply encode all your &'s as &amp; in attribute values. 

----snip

--------------

So there MR Mike :-P

-- 
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  \__/    Murray Gibbins             murray@scotweb.ltd.uk
  /  \    Programmer
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