As far as I know there is no web browser with built in validators for HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Developing web pages without validation is like using a compiler that doesn't do syntax analysis. Even Firefox with its excellent plugins aimed at developers like Firebug lacks plugins for CSS and JavaScript validation. Wouldn't it be useful to have these plugins? Am I missing something?
+2
A:
Actually, now that you ask, I think a validator should really belong to a web browser. A browser is though an end-user tool for content delivery, it is as much a first tool in a developer's workshop.
Yep, I agree, validators for (X)HTML and CSS should be there. Since a browser is doing this checking anyway, at least, for itself, internally, there is no reason why it couldn't display the validation output.
Developer Art
2010-05-08 20:09:13
+1
A:
You are probably missing the point that most users of a browser are not developers and have no interest in validation.
Web browsers are complicated beasts and are used for many different types of applications. A web browser developer has to think hard and long before adding any feature to their browser - a feature that will break most web pages for most people will kill a browser fairly quickly ;)
Oded
2010-05-08 20:09:20
Thanks for this link. I've been needing something like this.
Andrew Heath
2010-05-09 09:27:18
+5
A:
Web browsers are made for viewing things. The main use of browser is to render a page, even if the code is not valid (like, using "quirks" mode et cetera). Having a validator built into that is fine for developers, but absolutely unnecessary for users.
naivists
2010-05-08 20:09:42
Validator is already built-in in each browser. How else would a recover strategy work? It only takes to display the validation output to the user when he asks for it.
Developer Art
2010-05-08 20:13:07
I wouldn't call it exactly a validator. A smart parser, yes. A validator checks if a P element contains another P element and brings up a "invalid element contained in P" notification. A web browser, at the same situation, has only to decide how to recover from that, not how to explain the mistake in the document. I.e., i mean that validators work more on explanation of mistakes, browsers don't. And end users wouldn't care about the explanations, anyway.
naivists
2010-05-08 20:19:14
+1
A:
Worth noting that if you use application/xhtml+xml as your MIME type, Firefox will perform a well-formedness check at least.
Domenic
2010-05-08 20:40:39
A:
Internet Explorer 8 has a built in links to the W3C validators: press F12 and the select Validate menu.
Multiple Firefox extensions (including Web Developer Tools) have similar functions.
Richard
2010-05-09 09:15:44