[SPAM] Re: [uf-discuss] Introduction, and announcing XFN and HCard import into Videntity.org

[Dan Libby]

On Tuesday 06 February 2007 17:14, pmw57 at xtra.co.nz wrote:
> Dan Libby <danda at videntity.org> wrote:
> > Finally, having gone down this path, I think that these formats can be a
> > bit difficult to parse given the varied nature of (often very broken) web
> > pages in the wild. I found that using HTML Tidy was necessary before I
> > could even begin to parse most documents.  This has likely already been
> > discusssed, but I think that some standard parsing classes in various
> > languages could help pave the way for other implementors.  If such exists
> > for PHP, I would appreciate a pointer.  If not, perhaps I can refactor my
> > code so that it is generic enough to be useful for others.
>
> I don't think that we should place too much emphasis on fixing other
> peoples bad code.
>
> Browsers have been having to deal with bad code for a long time now, and
> only recently with the move to XHTML and XML has a change begun towards
> good code.
>
> If XHTML is to ever make its way to XML, then people are going to have to
> start using good code for it to translate across as they intended.
>
> If sense can't be made of their code after passing it through HTML Tidy,
> they should be notified as such and told to come back when their code can
> be made sense of.
>
> If anything less is done than asking for understandable code, we would be
> actively supporting the idea of too much bad code.
>
> [Rest of coding standard rant put on hold]

I agree with your point.  In fact, I was just this afternoon updating the 
Videntity import code so that it displays the Tidy fatal errors and also 
recommends the W3c Validator.

The thrust of my comment was actually about what I perceive as a need for some 
classes that can parse these microformats, to make things simpler for the 
average webmaster/coder.

I would consider cleaning up my parsing code a bit and releasing it, if I hear 
a few people with interest in such a thing. ( written in PHP )


regards,

-- 
Dan Libby

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