[WEB4LIB] RE: Following standards

[Eric Hellman]

I want to emphasize that in the case of ampersands in URL's, there is 
NO conflict between following the standard and making things work. In 
fact, not following the standard can lead to things not working, 
because browsers have to adopt strategies for dealing with invalid 
html.

As an example, the following invalid  html will not work in a popular browser:

<a
href="http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/book?chap=1&sect=3">section 3</a>

while this will work:

<a
href="http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/book?chap=1&amp;sect=3">section 3</a>

That's because the browser guesses that &sect  really means &sect; 
"&" in html is a signal that an entity name is to follow.

As a practical matter, unescaped ampersands in html are not a big 
deal, but they're still bugs that deserve  smooshing.

Making things work is what standards are about; when following a 
standard really leads to things not working, the standard should be 
ignored.

Eric



At 10:10 AM -0800 10/30/02, Michael Sauers wrote:
>This thought just hit me and I've already deleted the message I'm responding
>to but...
>
>Someone commented on avoiding standards for practicality. Wouldn't that be
>like saying that MARC just isn't practical in your situation so You'll just
>not use it? That is your option but don't expect to be able to share data
>with anyone else.
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>Michael Sauers, Librarian, Trainer & Author
>Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR)
>Aurora, CO :: 303-751-6277 x124 :: msauers at bcr.org
>http://www.bcr.org/~msauers
>a:visited {display: none}
>
>"Make what your heart instructs, and don't let
>anyone persuade you to compromise with your own
>truth."  --Clive Barker
>                        _
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>              & vCards / \ http://arc.pasp.de/
>--------------------------------------------------

-- 
Eric Hellman

Openly Informatics, Inc.
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