Re: [Lynx-dev] [Minor suggestion] Lynx should handle link elements containing any block elements

[Mathieu Bonnet]

AS: Thanks to CC me any reply, as I am not subscribed to this list.


Hi,


On Tuesday 15 May 2007 02:42, Thomas Dickey wrote:
>
> >
> > On Mon, May 14, 2007 at 09:35:51PM +0200, Mathieu Bonnet wrote:
> >
> > Using lynx-2.8.6_rel-4 (on Gentoo Linux), Lynx does not handle
> > links containing some block elements (`<a
> > href="#"><div>Foo</div></a>` does not work -"Foo" is on a new line,
> > as normal text, that is, it is not styled, and cannot get the
> > focus-, while `<a href="#"><p>Foo</p></a>` does work).
> >
> > While putting block elements, in inline elements, surely is
> > incorrect, in W3C HTML, it should be supported, for compatibility
> > with broken websites (I encountered one, today -and surely told the
> > owner to use <span>, if it was really needed, but it's probably not
> > the only website doing this).
>
>
> It seems to work if you turn on tagsoup mode, e.g., control/V
>
> (for the rest, I'll have to see if it's a bug-fix or a workaround ;-)
>


It does, indeed... :) I don't know Lynx much, sorry for this.

As `<a href="#"><p>Foo</p></a>` works, however, there should not be 
any "philosophical" problem to support <div> too, in the normal mode, 
and others, if needed (I surely don't like the idea, but Lynx is often 
used by people who might not be able to use another browser, at least 
at some specific time, so it should be more "flexible", by default, to 
avoid problems with broken websites -although broken websites might 
have an higher chance of using JavaScript or Flash, without any proper 
alternative, but this is another problem).

`<ul><a href="#"><li>Foo</li></a></ul>` does not work either, in the 
normal mode, but works in the TagSoup mode.


Couldn't the TagSoup mode be automatically activated (with a proper 
notice to the user, in case a webmaster is testing his website with 
Lynx), if the code is incorrect (like a block element, in an inline 
element, here), and, as such, might very possibly need the TagSoup 
mode, to be completely interpreted? (or interpreted as much as 
possible).

Also, while the website I encountered used the XHTML 1.0 Strict doctype, 
I tested without any doctype or header, and the TagSoup mode is not 
activated, automatically, either (while it probably should, without 
even testing if the document seems otherwise "valid").


Thanks for your reply, and thanks to anyone else who will help on this.


Bye.


-- 
Mathieu Bonnet <address@hidden>

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