LYNX-DEV note on peculiar problem

[Larry W. Virden, x2487]

I ran into a form which I couldn't submit today.  Nothing new or
peculiar about that - it happens rather frequently.  The author of this
page though was one that I knew tended to be rather good about writing
common html so I took a look to see what the problem was.  Even though
lynx told me http://www.december.com/john/research/survey.html
(this page will probably have changed by the time you read this),
was bad html, when I did a trace, I didn't see in particular what 
it was griping about.

I then fetched the page and did a weblint against it.  I found one problem.
At the end of 570+ lines of HTML <FORM>, there was a </OL> that didn't
match up with an <OL>.  lynx -trace said:
SGML: End </OL>
SGML: Found </OL> when expecting </FORM>. </FORM> assumed.

which didn't jump out at me as being an error - in fact, in trace mode,
nothing is marked as an error (there's over 2300 lines of trace output 
for the form, so I won't innundate the entire mailing list, but it's available
if someone wants to see it).

When I removed the spare </OL>, the form submitted just fine.

I am not reporting this as a lynx error - I mean, I know the
parse engine can only do so much.  But I did want to mention it as
a heads for for the folk answering email that it may be a bit tough
for someone trying to read the trace output to pinpoint certain types
of problems.

-- 
Larry W. Virden                 INET: address@hidden
<URL:http://www.teraform.com/%7Elvirden/> <*> O- "We are all Kosh."
Unless explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should 
be construed as representing my employer's opinions.
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