[uf-dev] hCard test 30: empty ABBR element

[Scott Reynen]

On Jun 21, 2006, at 7:31 AM, Drew McLellan wrote:

> hCard test 30 relies on an empty, self-closing ABBR element for  
> 'org' in the last hcard:
> http://microformats.org/tests/hcard/30-fn-org.html
>
> As far as I can tell, an empty ABBR can't ever be valid. Its very  
> purpose is to enclose an abbreviation that is then defined in the  
> title attribute. With no abbreviation to define, you can't have an  
> ABBR.
>
> To my surprise, the W3C validator doesn't care about empty ABBRs.  
> Tidy, on the other hand, agrees with me and strips them out of the  
> document. As my implementation is dependant on output from Tidy, I  
> can't currently pass test 30.
>
> So the burning question - which W3C tool is right? HTML Validator,  
> or HTML Tidy?

I would lean towards Tidy for these reasons:

1) Is an empty string really an abbreviation of anything/everything?   
I think this strains the common understanding of what "abbreviation"  
means.
2) This allows for, actually requires, hidden metadata, which is  
undesirable in microformats.

Peace,
Scott