I would like to see some indication that the page isn't well-formed
Yes, and
iCab does that, by putting a little smiley-face/frowny-face icon on the location panel. Of course, it's always frownyface on PerlMonks, so you can press it to get the errors. Here are the errors for this page as
I type this:
http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?title=%28FoxUni%29%20Re%282%29%3A%20
+Larry%20vs.%20Joel%20vs.%20Ovid%20vs.%20Masem%20vs.%20Web%20browsers&
+parent=126653&lastnode_id=126653&node=Offer%20your%20reply&parent_nod
+e=126653
Altogether 79 errors found. Only 25 errors are listed below.
Error (9/4): The tag <layer> is not part of HTML 4.0.
Error (9/93): The end tag </layer> is not part of HTML.
Warning (9/162): In the tag <TD> the attribute "WIDTH" should only con
+tain absolute pixel values.
Error (9/285): In the tag <IFRAME> the attribute "FRAMESPACING" is not
+ allowed.
Warning (9/606): In the tag <TD> the attribute "WIDTH" should only con
+tain absolute pixel values.
Warning (9/665): In the tag <TD> the value of the attribute "WIDTH" mu
+st be enclosed in quotes.
Warning (9/665): In the tag <TD> the attribute "WIDTH" should only con
+tain absolute pixel values.
Error (10/166): In the tag <INPUT> the attribute "BORDER" is not allow
+ed.
Warning (16/106): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4
+.0.
Error (16/120): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Error (16/120): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Error (16/200): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Error (16/263): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Error (16/1175): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Warning (21/1): The tag <CENTER> should no longer be used since HTML 4
+.0.
Warning (24/3): In the tag <TD> the attribute "WIDTH" should only cont
+ain absolute pixel values.
Error (27/78): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Warning (84/3): In the tag <TD> the attribute "WIDTH" should only cont
+ain absolute pixel values.
Error (85/32): The color name "eedddd" is not valid.
Error (86/1): In the tag <TR> white space is missing as separator afte
+r the attribute "BGCOLOR".
Error (86/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "BGCOLOR" is miss
+ing.
Error (86/1): The attribute "000000" is not part of HTML.
Error (86/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "" is missing.
Warning (88/8): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.0
+.
Warning (95/4): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.0
+.
Error (102/1): In the tag <TR> white space is missing as separator aft
+er the attribute "BGCOLOR".
Error (102/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "BGCOLOR" is mis
+sing.
Error (102/1): The attribute "000000" is not part of HTML.
Error (102/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "" is missing.
Warning (104/8): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (111/4): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Error (112/13): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Warning (112/79): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4
+.0.
Warning (113/1): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Error (114/286): The character '&' must be written as '&'.
Error (121/1): In the tag <TR> white space is missing as separator aft
+er the attribute "BGCOLOR".
Error (121/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "BGCOLOR" is mis
+sing.
Error (121/1): The attribute "000000" is not part of HTML.
Error (121/1): In the tag <TR> the value of attribute "" is missing.
Warning (123/8): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (133/1): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (135/254): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML
+4.0.
Warning (135/1488): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML
+ 4.0.
Warning (147/8): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (154/4): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (164/8): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4.
+0.
Warning (168/31): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML 4
+.0.
Warning (168/148): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML
+4.0.
Warning (168/277): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML
+4.0.
Warning (168/438): The tag <FONT> should no longer be used since HTML
+4.0.
I'm still trying to work with the Everything-engine people to get them to put the right ampersand escaping in URLs. Most of the rest of that goes away if you start using CSS instead of explicit tags. But there's still the odd things, like unquoted parameters, for which all we can say is "sloppy coding, please fix up!".
-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker