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Re: The W3C Markup Validator

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From: John Foliot
Date: Oct 6, 2017 4:21PM

Hi Geoff,

The short answer is, yes, without you adjusting the validator, it is
validating against HTML 5 (Question, which validator are you using? I might
suggest you check out https://validator.w3.org/nu/ if you haven't already.)

One thing about HTML 5 (and onwards) is that there is no longer a concept
of versioned "DocType" (as browsers pretty much ignored them anyway), which
is why in HTML 5 all you need to write is <!DOCTYPE html> and you're good
to go.

While I've lost track of all of the ins-and-outs of what is happening
currently with HTML 5
(I'm currently neck-deep in WCAG 2.1 work)
, I do recall a W3C discussion to effectively obsolete all previous
versions of HTML (this is unconfirmed, and there is some discussion over
whether they want to say deprecated, obsoleted, or superseded but the net
effect would be the same: discourage use of older versions of HTML 5 as
strongly as possible).

> I've also got little idea how to apply semantic richness to HTML5.... how
do <strong> etc work in HTML5?

Yikes! An answer to that question would warrant a book
by itself (I'll happily recommend the first HTML 5 book published, by
Bruce Lawson and Remi Sharp:
https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-HTML5-Voices-That-Matter/dp/0321784421)

But specific to the question about <strong>, the spec says this:

The strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element represents <https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/dom.html#represents> strong
importance, seriousness, or urgency for its contents.

*Importance*: The strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element
can be used in a heading, caption, or paragraph to distinguish the part
that really matters from other parts of the that might be more detailed,
more jovial, or merely boilerplate.

For example, the first word of the previous paragraph is marked up with
strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element> to
distinguish it from the more detailed text in the rest of the paragraph.

*Seriousness*: The strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element
can be used to mark up a warning or caution notice.

*Urgency*: The strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element
can be used to denote contents that the user needs to see sooner than other
parts of the document.

The relative level of importance of a piece of content is given by its
number of ancestor strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
elements;
each strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element
increases the importance of its contents.
Changing the importance of a piece of text with the strong
<https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element>
element
does not change the meaning of the sentence.
(https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element)

That's the *semantic* meaning of <strong> in HTML5: as to how it "works"
is really dependant on how the user-agent chooses to express the semantics.
In browsers today the default visual representation still is a bolding of
the text.


HTH

JF

On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 4:54 PM, Geoff Deering < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've been out of the Web Accessibility domain for around 15 years... age
> and disability. I use to contribute to the W3C Guidelines in this area, so
> I had a reasonable handle on this.
>
> I was in the process of writing an article on Web Standards and Compassion
> and Wisdom for an online magazine.... which I feel passionate about... but
> I've been stopped in my tracks by The W3C Markup Validator (
> https://validator.w3.org/)
>
> If anyone can please explain to me what is going on with the W3C Validator
> I'd appreciate it.
>
> I thought that all the DTDs would be backward compatible. It doesn't seem
> so. Even the code on this example no longer validates...
>
> https://www.w3.org/wiki/Validating_your_HTML#How_to_validate_your_pages
>
> Actually, I've gone through so many web sites that are from people who know
> these standards, and I can't find any that are not showing errors. These
> people know these standards well and how to apply them.
>
> So what is happening with the W3C Validator?
>
> The only instances I see of no errors and just warnings are where the
> doctype is declared in the HTML5 declaration <!DOCTYPE html>.
>
> I've also got little idea how to apply semantic richness to HTML5.... how
> do <strong> etc work in HTML5?
>
> But back to the W3C validator, what is going on with it... is it now only
> validating HTML5? That's the way it appears to me.
>
> ----------------
> Geoff Deering
> > > > >



--
John Foliot
Principal Accessibility Strategist
Deque Systems Inc.
<EMAIL REMOVED>

Advancing the mission of digital accessibility and inclusion