MetaChat - The idiots at Flickr have broken things again

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01 April 2011

The idiots at Flickr have broken things again I just posted this to their feedback section:→[More:]

How about CLOSING the daggone img tag in the 'grab the html code' bit? Just like real HTML, huh? Closing the whole thing with just the closing tag for the a href breaks parsers.
christ, people, is it amateur hour here?

In other words, you need to add a " /" to the end of the img src tag, or Mecha will barf.

post by: pjern at: 00:44 | 10 comments

The new search is a little flaky, too. Searching my own photos gave me a message - I think it was - 'You seem to be looking for something in your own photostream. Here are your most recent uploads.'

Uh, thanks.

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 01 April | 01:44

Real HTML doesn't close the IMG tag, since it's based on SGML not XML. The MeCha parser would appear to be expecting XHTML, not HTML.

Adding a slash at the end of the IMG tag in HTML is a quirk suggested in the notorious* Appendix C of the XHTML spec, but doesn't appear in any [non-X] HTML spec.

(* if you're an XML nerd)

posted by cillit bang 01 April | 02:15

Real HTML doesn't close the IMG tag, since it's based on SGML not XML. The MeCha parser would appear to be expecting XHTML, not HTML.

If both constructs are valid, then the parser should accept them, no?

posted by pjern 01 April | 02:19

Oh, and Preview does accept the code without the closing tag, then you hit 'post' and mecha goes SCREW YOU!

posted by pjern 01 April | 02:21

Wow. None of the menus work in Opera any more.

posted by arse_hat 01 April | 02:36

Ahh, I just hit this issue in the Minecraft thread above, was about to complain.

posted by octothorpe 01 April | 07:38

*clicks non-existant favorite button next to cillit bangs comment*

posted by dabitch 01 April | 15:51

If both constructs are valid, then the parser should accept them, no?

One construct (without the slash) is valid HTML, the other construct (with the slash) is valid XHTML, and XHTML's Appendix C posits that most HTML parsers don't mind the slash, therefore having it is de facto valid HTML.

I think it's MeCha that's broken, not Flickr. The parser should accept either.

posted by cillit bang 01 April | 15:54

I think it's MeCha that's broken, not Flickr. The parser should accept either.

So to whom to we appeal to get this fixxored?

posted by pjern 01 April | 17:41

Yup, the MetaChat comment parser ought to be more forgiving with stuff like this. I've added it to the list to have a look at.

posted by chrismear 04 April | 07:00

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