Test case checked using direct input mode, grammar CSS2 selected:

Test case :

	element {color:\ red; }

I believe that the above is illegal, if my reading of CSS 2.1 and CSS 2 is correct, yet the validator reports no error.

Reasoning: the escaped space should be treated as _part of_ an _identifier_, not as a normal whitespace separator. See the productions for "ident" in CSS2 section D.2; CSS 2 only permits escapes within "ident"/"name", "string" and "url".

So the property value should be an identifier " red", which is not a valid value for the color property.


Regards,

Cecil Ward.