Rodent Regatta

Andrei vented. Then, he gave us some great tips (watch the comments here as well). He achieved XHTML Strict validation for a short time, then found the flaws creeping back in via things other than his own markup.

That information is helpful to those of us who aren’t sure whether it is something we’re doing or something the tools we use are doing to cause non-validating (invalid?) markup. Terminology in all of this is important to me, though I’m not certain which of these are redundant relative to one or more of the others:

• valid
• accessible
• semantic
• standards-compliant
• well-formed
• usable
• XHTML
• CSS
• optimized or lightweight

While I’m willing to learn, I’d like to learn in the context of a tool that helps me make sure I’m conforming to the rules that underpin each of the above terms. The more I read, the more confident I become that such a tool doesn’t exist.

Notepad with know-how is the only way.

Paul Scrivens sent me on a search of the Movable Type documentation. During that search I learned that Movable Type has a ready-made tag that keeps track of the comment numbers.

It is called <$MTCommentOrderNumber$>

I experimented a bit and found a way to drop it into one of my comments templates. Now, comments are numbered. No plugin. No script. A simple tag placed in the proper template. Many thanks to Mr. Scrivens.

Remember how we started the morning with the big-and-bold declaration about learning all this CSS and XHTML stuff? Sure, you remember. I’ve been working on all this junk for the better part of two years. Since, most of my forays into the world of web standards and the basics of valid, useable XHTML and CSS end up in the ditch, I’ll simply let Andrei Herasimchuk speak for me and move along. (Remember, Dan is another of those who can do cold fusion on a table top; I’m just trying to make the Regatta validate!)

Have a great Saturday!

• * * UPDATE * * * Just in case Andrei’s rant didn’t make the point, here’s one other view you might consider, but don’t do so without reading the comments after the article. Thanks to Andy Budd for the link.

I want to number my comments. No, I want to number your comments. It’s done well at Whitespace. It’s done well at Photo Matt.

Is it a plugin for Movable Type? Is it a Movable Type setting that I turn on or off? What allows those who have their comments numbered to automagically number them?

• * * UPDATE * * * While I’m simply trying to stick a silly number next to each comment, the brilliant designers are finding five pixels of fault with the XHTML strict and transitional DOCTYPE declaration across various browsers. Here we have an example of the different between those of us who are capable of giving Mom our handprint in plaster of Paris, as compared with those who can demonstrate table-top cold fusion experiments that are readily verified by the world community.

We have a know-how gap!

Where does all the emphasis on the basics of web design, standards, XHTML, semantic markup, CSS and accessibility take us? Well, it takes us to the mountaintop, of course.