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Re: The W3C Markup Validator

for

From: John Foliot
Date: Oct 6, 2017 4:22PM

Sorry, that should have read: "...discourage use of older versions of HTML
as strongly as possible..."

JF

On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 5:21 PM, John Foliot < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> 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 whether they want to say deprecated, obsoleted, or superseded but the net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
>



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

Advancing the mission of digital accessibility and inclusion