HTML stuff: validators, metadata and Lynx

[spober at manvax.cc.manhattan.edu]

First, although Barnes and Noble being inaccessible through
Lynx is no great loss to me, I've had a lot of trouble accessing
OCLC FirstSearch through the VMS implementation of Lynx we are 
running here.  This is rather distressing, since we PAY for this
service, and because the only dial-up access to OCLC for faculty
from home is via the VAX, which has Lynx as its only browser.

OCLC first told me that FirstSearch was accessible by Lynx (perhaps
on a different platform?) but although I was using a version of 
Lynx that they said worked well with it, users were unable to 
select a database from the appropriate page.  That pretty much 
put a quick halt to any significant use of FirstSearch from off-site.
I don't know if OCLC still claims to support Lynx or not.

I have found that Lynx is the 'pickiest' about coding errors of any
browser.  To avoid having my pages look goofy in Lynx, I've taken
to putting my HTML through the Web-Techs Validator before mounting 
them.  I'm running into problems with longer pages, however.  The 
longer the text, the more likely I'm going to get them citing me for
nonexistant coding errors.  Lines seem to get mysteriously dropped
when I look at the output, and I don't know what is causing it.
(I can see the text and it looks fine after I've pasted it into
my pages.)

On another topic, can anyone point me to some additional information
on uses of META tags?  It's one topic not covered very fully in the
HTML books I have.  I've been using them for "keywords" in particular,
but I'm wondering about the other uses of the META tag.

A brief comment on the filter wars:  I'd appreciate it if this
list could at least have topic keywords, as with some other listservs.
That way, those of us who've had our fill of any particular topic 
could set our subcriptions so that we got only the posts dealing 
with particular types of issues.  So we could, um, you know, filter
out the topics we have no interest in.  So to speak. :-)

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 Stacy Pober			   Internet: spober at manvax.cc.manhattan.edu
 Information Alchemist		   http://www.manhattan.edu/library/mclmenu.html
 Manhattan College Libraries	   Phone: 718-862-7980                    
 Riverdale, NY 10471	     	   Fax: 718-862-7995                    
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