When htmlText goes wrong

[Richmond]

On 04/01/14 16:28, Graham Samuel wrote:
> OK, Richmond, I get it. I have used tools like Komposer (although I paid for them - not necessarily a sign of superiority, I know). My need however was essentially to find out what had gone wrong with some html that I had created by LC via the 'htmlText' functionality and then edited by me, so Komposer didn't really help. But thanks anyway.
>
> Just now, I clunked the text through an online HTML validator, and was amazed to find that there's a difference between
>
> < font color = "#FF0000"> some text
>
> and
>
> <font color = "#FF0000"> some text
>
> Spot the difference! There's a space between the first two characters in the top version.

There are spaces and there are spaces: my, limited, experience of HTML 
has told me that after a '<' or before a '>'
(I think of them as an opener and a closer respectively) there has to be 
something that is not a space.

HTML code is supposed to be simple (rather like Livecode is supposed to 
be simple): it maybe simple up to a point, or, what is one (wo)man's
"simple" is not another (wo)man' s "simple"; especially if there is 
nothing to explain to you what the original author thought "simple"
meant.

>   I thought spaces were totally non-signficant in HTML tags, but apparently not so... I still can't quite believe this. However this got me further, and I found I had some malformed <font> xxx </font> statements later in the text, but I have no idea how they got there. Gotta be bad editing by me, I suppose.
>
> HTML appears to have no self-correcting qualities at all, or to put it another way, no redundancy. Well, I have never previously tried to use or edit any raw HTML longer than a couple of lines (and will try to avoid it in the future), so it was news to me even if everyone else on this list understands it completely.

Why I suggested Kompozer was because it has a fairly good system to tell 
you when your HTML code is wonky (as in your example above)
rather than just merrily typing code into a textEditor, or, for that 
matter, a Livecode textBox.

Anyway, I am extremely glad to hear you sorted things out!

Richmond.

>
> Graham
>
> On 4 Jan 2014, at 15:22, Richmond wrote:
>
>> On 04/01/14 15:21, Graham Samuel wrote:
>>> Richmond, thanks, seems like a great idea. Needless to say I'd never heard of Kompozer. Sadly I can't get it to do anything. I installed it on my Mac, then I put my (obviously flawed) html text into the main window, save, and then say I want to see it in my browser. The browser (Firefox) just shows me the raw text and doesn't render it at all - this is a lot worse than LiveCode did. How can I tell what's wrong? And what do you mean by the 'kiddy-thing'? If you mean just compose your html in Komposer, well I have a lot of pre-existing text so that's a non starter for me.
>>>
>>> Any more top tips?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>>
>>> Graham
>> Kompozer is a program designed for slobs like me who either cannot be bothered to learn html or don't have the time.
>>
>> I use RunRev's Livecode so I don't have to learn C++, 'Super-Licketty-Split Pascal', 'Fortran on Crack' or any of the other computer
>> languages that require a hell of a lot of heavy lifting; luckily Kevin Miller and Co. have already done the heavy lifting for me.
>>
>> I usually buy cars with wheels already made, instead of mining and smelting the metal, going out to Malaysia to tap rubber trees
>> (for the tyres) and so on.
>>
>> Kompozer is a way to get your website without the heavy lifting: it has got to be good!
>>
>> I designed my website with it by simply dragging images into it, text boxes and so on; totally WYSIWYG.
>>
>> Then, if you want to, you can "go round the back" and twiddle with the html code.
>>
>> Under the 'Help' menu there is a link to the User Guide webpage where it is all explained very plainly.
>>
>> Failing that, go here: http://www.charlescooke.me.uk/web/ugs03.htm
>>
>> The whole thing works rather like a desktop publishing suite, except for web-sites rather than book layout.
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> By the 'kiddy-thing' I mean exactly what Kompozer is designed for; assemble all the rather materials you want to
>> put in your html document (pictures, text, background images, spacers and so on) and quite literally drag-n-drop them into Kompozer
>> as per the instructions.
>>
>> I started work with a progrom called Nvu (Kompozer's predecessor) about 8 years ago after having made an awful fool of myself trying to
>> build a couple of websites without, frankly, putting anything like the required effort into learning html; and never looked back.
>>
>> I do have an O'Reilly Html book and tend to tweak the finished product, but would never dare to try an html document from code alone.
>>
>> Richmond.
>>
>>> On 4 Jan 2014, at 12:17, Richmond wrote:
>>>
>>>> Here's a thought:
>>>>
>>>> download Kompozer: http://www.kompozer.net/download.php
>>>>
>>>> try your html in there; or, if you are a lazy so-and-so like me,
>>>> just do the 'kiddy-thing' and then take the html code and pop it where it's needed.
>>>>
>>>> Richmond.
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