Program Limitations

CSE HTML Validator is a powerful tool but it does have its limits. Please keep in mind the below as you use CSE HTML Validator to create quality documents.

· CSE HTML Validator does not and cannot completely check a document for 100% correct syntax. However, it will detect many syntactical errors including most common errors such as misspelled tag names, attributes, and attribute values, missing quotation marks, missing end tags, mismatching '<' and '>' characters, and using tags in incorrect locations. Using CSE HTML Validator is far better than not using anything at all. "It is better to have validated and failed than never to have validated at all." Note that CSE HTML Validator Std/Pro has a significantly more powerful syntax checking engine than CSE HTML Validator Lite and can therefore detect many more syntax problems.

· (This should not be considered a limitation) HTML 4.0 does not require "head" and "body" tags but due to the current design of enforcing good style, these tags are required for proper validation (and it's always safer to have them than to not). In addition, some tags may need to have end tags for proper validation by HTML Validator (such as "td") even though in HTML 4.0 they do not have to be. Many web developers and companies, including AI Internet Solutions, the developers of CSE HTML Validator, would not consider this a limitation, but would instead consider it to be good style and structure. Furthermore, XHTML makes using many end tags a requirement (like with the "td" element).

• CSE HTML Validator currently does not fully support variable-length or double-byte character encodings such as UTF-8, UTF-16, and Unicode.
  

DTD Validation

NOTE: It is important to note that CSE HTML Validator's own validation engine is not a "real" HTML Validator in the strict technical definition of "HTML validator". This means that CSE HTML Validator is not limited to checking HTML documents according to a DTD (document type definition). Instead, it uses a powerful validation engine that is custom designed for HTML, XHTML, and CSS. It does not use DTDs. However, a separate SGML based DTD parser and validator (nsgmls) is included with CSE HTML Validator Std/Pro and can be used for DTD based HTML validation.

Because CSE HTML Validator's own validation engine is not a DTD validator, it can:

• Detect many problems that a DTD validator cannot detect.
• Enforce better style.
• Provide tips, compatibility messages, and advice (most of these types of messages require the standard or professional edition).
• Display easier to understand validator messages.
• Be customized and configured to a user's specifications.
• Check HTML (or XHTML), CSS, links, and accessibility all at once.