Does HTML validation matter?
Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror has posted a very well thought out piece on the perils of taking web site validation too seriously. Concerning XHTML validation he quotes James Bennett:
The short and sweet reason is simply this: XHTML offers no compelling advantage — to me — over HTML, but even if it did it would also offer increased complexity and uncertainty that make it unappealing to me.
and goes on to voice his own opinion:
The whole HTML validation exercise is questionable, but validating as XHTML is flat-out masochism. Only recommended for those that enjoy pain. Or programmers. I can’t always tell the difference.
He knows us too well.
His advice at the end is:
- Validate your HTML. Know what it means to have valid HTML markup. Understand the tooling. More information is always better than less information. Why fly blind?
- Nobody cares if your HTML is valid. Except you. If you want to. Don’t think for a second that producing perfectly valid HTML is more important than running your website, delivering features that delight your users, or getting the job done.
Ah, perspective, that rare and valuable thing.
Read the whole article yourself; if you create web pages it might give you a new perspective and is certainly worth 5 minutes of your time.