wtf? does the validator want now?

[richard]

http://1littleworld.net/sample/tableAAA.html

the w3.org validator says it can't check the file because of a noncompliant
utf-8 character? Ok. Care to tell me what that character is?
Oh yeah Ok, we will, but in code.

The error was: utf8 "\x96" does not map to Unicode

I am having a problem understanding why a link works outside the loop of
things, but not in the loop.

Scroll down and find "Jimmy McGriff" and then click on "M.G. Blues".
I get a new tab. Not the youtube video.
Pasting the url directly into the address bar, I get the video.

So I switched the charset to windows-1252 and the validator was happy with
that. Cleaned up the errors and all is well.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

http://1littleworld.net/sample/tableAAA.html

the w3.org validator says it can't check the file because of a noncompliant
utf-8 character? Ok. Care to tell me what that character is?
Oh yeah Ok, we will, but in code.

The error was: utf8 "\x96" does not map to Unicode

Since others have had similar problems (the issue has been discussed in
the validator mailing list too, alas with no improvement in the message
despite better suggestions), I will explain this a bit, or a few bytes.

The error message is technically wrong. Anything in UTF-8 (this is the
preferred MIME name for the encoding, and "utf8" isn't even an alias in
MIME) "maps to Unicode", since UTF-8 is just a transfer encoding for
Unicode.

What the message is trying to say that in processing data assumed to be
UTF-8 encoded, the byte 96 (hexadecimal) was encountered in a context
where it may not appear according to the definition of UTF-8. That is,
the data is in fact not UTF-8 encoded.

It is meaningless to ask "what character", since the data contains a
byte that does constitute the encoded form of a character (or the first
byte of a multi-byte encoded form), in the encoding being applied.

So I switched the charset to windows-1252 and the validator was happy with
that. Cleaned up the errors and all is well.

Well, that's rather common. So the problem was really that the data is
not UTF-8 encoded. In windows-1252, the byte is well-defined: it is the
EN DASH character, U+2013 in Unicode; see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/cc305145
for a full table of windows-1252 (with Unicode equivalents).

 

[richard]

Since others have had similar problems (the issue has been discussed in
the validator mailing list too, alas with no improvement in the message
despite better suggestions), I will explain this a bit, or a few bytes.

The error message is technically wrong. Anything in UTF-8 (this is the
preferred MIME name for the encoding, and "utf8" isn't even an alias in
MIME) "maps to Unicode", since UTF-8 is just a transfer encoding for
Unicode.

What the message is trying to say that in processing data assumed to be
UTF-8 encoded, the byte 96 (hexadecimal) was encountered in a context
where it may not appear according to the definition of UTF-8. That is,
the data is in fact not UTF-8 encoded.

It is meaningless to ask "what character", since the data contains a
byte that does constitute the encoded form of a character (or the first
byte of a multi-byte encoded form), in the encoding being applied.


Well, that's rather common. So the problem was really that the data is
not UTF-8 encoded. In windows-1252, the byte is well-defined: it is the
EN DASH character, U+2013 in Unicode; see
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/cc305145
for a full table of windows-1252 (with Unicode equivalents).

thanks for the info.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

http://1littleworld.net/sample/tableAAA.html

the w3.org validator says it can't check the file because of a noncompliant
utf-8 character? Ok. Care to tell me what that character is?
Oh yeah Ok, we will, but in code.

The error was: utf8 "\x96" does not map to Unicode

I am having a problem understanding why a link works outside the loop of
things, but not in the loop.

Scroll down and find "Jimmy McGriff" and then click on "M.G. Blues".
I get a new tab. Not the youtube video.
Pasting the url directly into the address bar, I get the video.

So I switched the charset to windows-1252 and the validator was happy with
that. Cleaned up the errors and all is well.

You have been given an accurate explanation of why you had this
problem. It is not uncommon. I recently updated a faq page for a group
from some text supplied on a Usenet group viewed on Google groups.
There were dozens of utf8 errors . The errors concerned quotes,
dashes, various characters used in French and German, etc. It did not
take too long to correct the page once I know what characters were
causing the problems. The problem may have been due to the original
text written, by Usenet, by Google, or some combination of the three.
Making the corrections took less time than typing in the complete text
from paper copy would have, but it was no fun.

 

[cwdjrxyz]

You have been given an accurate explanation of why you had this
problem. It is not uncommon. I recently updated a faq page for a group
from some text supplied on a Usenet group viewed on Google groups.
There were dozens of utf8 errors . The errors concerned quotes,
dashes, various characters used in French and German, etc. It did not
take too long to correct the page once I know what characters were
causing the problems. The problem may have been due to the original
text written, by Usenet, by Google, or some combination of the three.
Making the corrections took less time than typing in the complete text
from paper copy would have, but it was no fun.

I was using a xhtml 1.1 page properly served. Using a Firefox browser,
the page will not display at all even if there is only one of the utf8
errors of the type mentioned. A properly served xhtml page user an xml
parser which is extremely strict. Other browsers may react to the
errors in another way. For example, some will display the page to the
point an xml error is made.

 

[idle]

On Sat, 26 May 2012 04:05:59 -0400, richard wrote in alt.html:

wtf? does the validator want now?

It wants you to stop putting this shit up on the web.

--
idle
The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what
a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a
pirate and a good man or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so
you'll have to square with that some day. And me, for example, I can let
you drown, but I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesies,
savvy? So, can you sail under the command of a pirate, or can you not?