HTML arguments
introduction
If you want to check a site against a version of HTML that corresponds to ssc’s current build, you won’t need to use these switches. The default is the most recent version of HTML at the time of the build.
html.version
However, beyond that, the only HTML switch you are likely to need is html.version, which applies when no <!DOCTYPE…> (or xml header) is specified, andor if you prefer to precisely define which version of HTML 5 to consider. It accepts the following values:
| tags | HTML tags (1991, informal) |
| 1 | HTML 1.0 (Jun 1993 draft) |
| 1.0 | HTML 1.0 (Jun 1993 draft) |
| + | HTML Plus (Nov 1993 draft) |
| 2 | HTML 2.0 |
| 2.0 | HTML 2.0 |
| 3 | HTML 3.2 |
| 3.0 | HTML 3.0 (Mar 1995 draft) |
| 3.2 | HTML 3.2 |
| 4 | HTML 4.01 |
| 4.0 | HTML 4.0 |
| 4.1 | HTML 4.01 |
| 4.2 | XHTML 1.0 |
| 4.3 | XHTML 1.1 core |
| 4.4 | XHTML 2.0 (Dec 2010 draft) |
| 5 | recent WhatWG HTML 5 |
| 5.0 | W3 HTML 5.0 |
| 5.1 | W3 HTML 5.1 |
| 5.2 | W3 HTML 5.2 |
| 5.3 | W3 HTML 5.3 (Oct 2018 draft) |
| 2005/1/1 | WhatWG WebApps draft (Jan 2005) |
| ... | (halfly) |
| 2007/1/1 | WhatWG WebApps draft (Jan 2007) |
| 2007/7/1 | WhatWG HTML 5 (Jul 2007) |
| ... | (halfly) |
| 2021/1/1 | WhatWG HTML 5 (Jan 2021) |
| .. | (quarterly) |
| 2023/7/1 | WhatWG HTML 5 (Jul 2024) |
| XHTML 1.0 | XHTML 1.0 |
| XHTML 1.1 | XHTML 1.1 core |
| XHTML 2.0 | (Dec 2010 draft) |
| XHTML 5.x | XHTML corresponding to equivalent W3 HTML |
Although you can specify exact dates for versions of the WhatWG HTML 5 living standard, currently only broad versions published quarterly in January, April, July and October are supported (halfly before 2021).
Certain versions of HTML offer variants, such as loose and strict definitions. ssc picks those up from the <!DOCTYPE…> in the HTML file, if any, and then carefully ignores them.
Validation of XHTML is even less strict.
Just to remind you, there are no guarantees of accuracy (or inaccuracy).
Copies of the appropriate standards can be found online. A copy of the copies referenced during ssc’s development can be found at https://ssc.lu.
other html arguments
The remaining switches allow you to precisely control analysis.
| html.force | If <!DOCTYPE…> is missing, force presumption of html.version value, not HTML 1/tags |
| html.ie | Don’t mention certain Internet Explorer ‘features’. |
| html.rfc1867 | Ignore the RFC 1867 (INPUT=FILE) extension when processing HTML 2.0 |
| html.rfc1942 | Ignore the RFC 1942 (tables) extension when processing HTML 2.0. |
| html.rfc1980 | Ignore the RFC 1980 (client side image maps) extension when processing HTML 2.0. |
| html.rfc2070 | Ignore the RFC 2070 (internationalisation) extension when processing HTML 2.0. |
| html.safari | Don’t mention certain early Safari ‘features’. |
| html.tags | When an HTML file is loaded that contains no <!DOCTYPE…>, ssc normally presumes HTML 1. This switch tells it to presume the file conforms to an earlier HTML Tags specification (the one at CERN). This is overridden by html.version. |
| html.timefmt X | Set the SSI timefmt to X. |
| html.title n -z n | If <TITLE> text is longer than n characters, say so. This applies to text enclosed by a <TITLE> element under <HEAD>, not the value of TITLE attributes. |
| html.wx | The site is intended for use with wxWidgets’ HTML engine. |
Dylan Harris
December 2024