Weblint, Version 1.020
Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 Neil Bowers. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the "Artistic License". You should have received
a copy of the Artistic License with this distribution, in the file named
"Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one.
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Weblint is a syntax and minimal style checker for HTML: a perl script which
picks fluff off html pages, much in the same way traditional lint picks fluff
off C programs. Files to be checked are passed on the command-line:
% weblint *.html
Warnings are generated a la lint -- <filename>(line #): <warning>. E.g.:
home.html(9): malformed heading - open tag is <H1>, but closing is </H2>
Weblint includes the following features:
* by default checks for HTML 3.2 (Wilbur)
* 46 different checks and warnings
* Warnings can be enabled/disabled individually, as per your preference
* basic structure and syntax checks
* warnings for use of unknown elements and element attributes.
* context checks (where a tag must appear within a certain element).
* overlapped or illegally nested elements.
* do IMG elements have ALT text?
* catches elements which should only appear once
* flags obsolete elements.
* support for user and site configuration files
* stylistic checks
* checks for html which is not portable across all browsers
* flags markup embedded in comments, since this can confuse some browsers
* support for Netscape (v4), and Microsoft (v4) HTML extensions
All warnings can be enabled or disabled, using a configuration file,
$HOME/.weblintrc. A sample configuration file, weblintrc, is included
in the distribution. Weblint also supports a site-wide configuration
file, which lets a group of people share a common configuration.
See the man page for details.
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Installation
NOTE: Certain versions of perl have bugs which are triggered by weblint.
You shouldn't experience problems if you have 4.036, or 5.004.
A simple Makefile is provided, in which you may want to modify BINDIR
and MANDIR, which specify where the weblint script and manpage should
be installed.
Weblint uses the `newgetopt.pl' and `find.pl' libraries, which are part
of the standard perl library, so this will hopefully not cause any problems.
Please let me know if it does.
The manpage (weblint.1) should be installed in a directory where it
will be picked up by man (e.g., /usr/local/man/man1 on our machines).
A postscript version of the manpage (weblint.ps) is available at:
ftp://ftp.cre.canon.co.uk/pub/weblint/weblint.ps
Weblint is available via anonymous ftp, either as a gzip'd tar file,
or zip'd archive:
ftp://ftp.cre.canon.co.uk/pub/weblint/weblint-1.020.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.cre.canon.co.uk/pub/weblint/weblint-1.020.zip
or you can get it from the weblint home page:
http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/weblint/
The home page also includes a list of other ftp sites where you
can get weblint.
The weblint distribution includes a simple regression testsuite.
Run the testsuite with either of the following commands:
% make test
% ./test.pl
If any of the tests fail, please mail the logfile (test.log) to me.
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I hope you find this useful. Comments, suggestions and bug reports are
welcome, see my email address or home page, given below. Sample html
helps when tracking down problems.
I maintain two email lists:
weblint-announce@cre.canon.co.uk
Announcements for new versions of weblint.
weblint-victims@cre.canon.co.uk
Discussion related to weblint (such as what features should
be added), as well as announcements for new versions of
weblint, and pre-release testing.
Email me if you want to be added to either list. You don't need to be
on both lists.
Neil Bowers
Canon Research Centre Europe
<neilb@cre.canon.co.uk> http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/
