Ian Hickson wrote:
On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Dan Connolly wrote:
Even "Bad value text for attribute type on XHTML element input." is
technically correct although not exactly helpful (see error class 4
below). This message is the #1 usability bug, BTW.
I think it's a spec bug.
I don't think it's cost-effective to try to constrain authors in this
respect. I hope this constraint is dropped from HTML 5.
It's actually a relaxation of constraints in HTML4. In HTML4 the element
isn't allowed there at all, but we figured that was too strict when it
came to the type="hidden" value elements, since those don't affect the
user at all (they're hidden by definition).
Do the browsers behave differently when faced with the input I provided?
Which of these messages indicate a specific and real interop problem?
If the answer to the question of "why does the html5 conformance checker
produce this message?" is "because the spec says so"; and the answer to
"why does the spec say so" is "because previous specs said so"; and the
"solution" in many cases is to simply add back in "noise" <div> tags,
then this non-answer coupled with the unfriendliness of the conformance
checker messages (something I have great sympathy for as it is often
very hard when faced with bad input and complicated/confusing specs to
make correct and simple suggestions) coupled with the sheer number of
messages produced coupled with the perceived "make-workness" of the
answer will cause many people to not bother.
My 0.02 anyway, for what it is worth.
- Sam Ruby
