120 2002-12-10 03:27:28 +0000 improve error message for ampersand (&) in URI for xhtml 2005-06-17 23:56:37 +0000 1 1 1 Unclassified Validator check 0.6.1 Other other RESOLVED FIXED http://validator.w3.org/check P2 enhancement 0.7.0 856 1 hauser link oldest_to_newest 302 0 hauser 2002-12-10 03:27:28 +0000 having an ampersand like href="http://www.auscert.org.au/render.html?it=2260&cid=1920 immediately causes 7 errors. There is an "explain" link that takes me to http://validator.w3.org/docs/errors.html#bad-entity, but even though it's second <li> talks about using &amp, its worrying about the missing semicolon in the end and the true reason (http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/problems.html#amp) is never mentioned. 389 1 link 2003-03-01 14:15:40 +0000 Target 0.6.2; this wants a little thinking to avoid "optimizing" exclusively on one of the possible reasons for this error message. At a minimum this error explanation should include the WDG link and make clear the situation with & in URIs. 493 2 link 2003-05-24 07:21:12 +0000 Retargetting to 0.7; this fits nicely in with the general framework for improving error messages planned for that timeframe. 2207 3 link 2004-09-01 13:18:28 +0000 Nominating for review for the 0.7.0 release. 2281 4 ot 2004-09-08 02:42:14 +0000 AFAIK this was addressed in 0.6.5 with the "error message explanations" feature 4279 5 tarquinwj 2005-06-15 11:17:30 +0000 Re-opening, as this is the current error message: "Line 221, column 8: character "&" is the first character of a delimiter but occurred as data <h2>Foo & Bar</h2> If you wish to include the "<" character in your output, you should escape it as "&lt;". Another possibility is that you forgot to close quotes in a previous tag." That was not an attempt to add a < character - validator recognised it as a & character, then gave the info for the < character. 4292 6 ot 2005-06-17 23:56:37 +0000 (In reply to comment #5) > Re-opening, as this is the current error message: > > "Line 221, column 8: character "&" is the first character of a delimiter but > occurred as data > > <h2>Foo & Bar</h2> Strictly speaking, You are talking about the warning message for ampersand as data, *not* the error message for an ampersand in a URI. As such, your comment is more relevant to Bug 798 than this one. If you want to suggest a better warning message for ampersand as data, I would recommend sending a message to the public list www-validator@w3.org - or opening a new issue on bugzilla.