300 lines
11 KiB
HTML
300 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content=
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"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 1st June 2003), see www.w3.org" />
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<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="tidy.css" />
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<title>HTML Tidy - Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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<style type="text/css">
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code { font-weight: bold; }
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>HTML Tidy - Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
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<h2>Overview</h2>
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<p class="abstract">Certain questions about Tidy come up on a
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regular basis. These are some that have been culled from postings
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to the html-tidy@w3.org and tidy-develop@lists.sourceforge.net
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mailing lists. If you don't see your question addressed here, see
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<a href="#support">How To Get Support</a> below.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#what-now">What Now?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#support">How to Get Support?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#bug">How to Submit A Bug Report</a></li>
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<li><a href="#feature">How to Submit A Feature Request</a></li>
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<li><a href="#layout">How Do I Control the Output Layout?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#version">What Version of Tidy Should I Use?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#regression">How Do I Run A Regression Test?</a></li>
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</ul>
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<hr />
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<dl>
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<dt><a name="what-now" id="what-now"></a>What Now?</dt>
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<dd><p>If you have a popup screen that reads as follows:
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<pre>
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HTML Tidy for Windows <vers 1st August 2002; built on Aug 8 2002, at 15:41:13>
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Parsing Console input <stdin>
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</pre>
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<p>and do not know what to do next, read on.</p>
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<p>Tidy is waiting for your HTML to come in, so it can parse it.
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Tidy is fundamentally a tool that reads in HTML cleans it up and
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writes it out again. It was developed as a program you run from the
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console prompt, but there are GUI encapsulations available, e.g.
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HTML-Kit, which you might prefer.</p>
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<p>If you are using Windows, the first step is to unzip the zip file
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and place the tidy.exe file in a folder somewhere on your executables
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path. You may also want to set up a config file to save having to type
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lots of options each time you run Tidy. From the console prompt you can
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run Tidy like this:</p>
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<pre>
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C> tidy -m mywebpage.html
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</pre>
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<p>In this case, the <code>-m</code> option requests Tidy to write
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the tidied file back to the same filename as it read from
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(mywebpage.html). Tidy will give you a breakdown of the problems it
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found and the version of HTML the file appears to be using.</p>
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<p>To get a listing of Tidy command line options, just type
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<code>tidy -?</code>. To see a listing on configuration options,
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try <code>tidy -help-config</code>. To get more info on the
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config options, see the <a
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href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/docs/quickref.html">Quick Reference</a>.</p>
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<p>See also Dave Raggett's <a href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/docs/Overview.html#help">User Guide</a>.</p>
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<p>If you're not comfortable with the DOS command line, you should
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try one of the <a href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/#tidylibapps">GUI
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Applications</a>.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="support" id="support"></a>How To Get Support</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>For general HTML Tidy support, the original mailing list
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html-tidy@w3.org is best. Sometimes developers are the last to
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know... Also, this list covers both Java and C versions, not to
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mention various value-added products such as GUI front ends, Perl
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and Python integration, etc. If you don't get a response after a
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couple tries or if you have a bug fix, bump it over to the
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developer list at tidy-develop@lists.sourceforge.net. It's not a
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hard line, but that is the general arrangement.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="bug" id="bug"></a>How to Submit A Bug Report</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>You are encouraged to report bugs you found to the Tidy
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developer team. Tidy's quality depends on your feedback. You can
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either file your bug report in the Sourceforge <a
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href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=27659&atid=390963">
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bug tracker</a> for HTML Tidy (<em>recommended</em>) or send a mail
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to the mailing list at html-tidy@w3.org. Note you do <em>not</em>
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have to have a Sourceforge account in order to file bug reports, or
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be subscribed to html-tidy@w3.org in order to post messages to the
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list.</p>
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<p>Prior to submitting a bug report, please check that the bug is
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not already known. Many are. If you are not sure, just ask. If it
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is new bug, make sure to include at least the following information
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in your report:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>A desciption of what you think went wrong.</li>
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<li>The HTML Tidy version (find it out by running <code>tidy
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-v</code>) and operating system you are running.</li>
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<li>The input, that exposes the bug.<br />
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A small HTML document that reproduces the problem is best.</li>
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<li>The configuration options you've used. Command line options
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like<br />
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<code>-asxml</code>, configuration files, etc. You may use
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<code>tidy -show-config</code> to get an overview of the active
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Tidy settings.</li>
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<li>Your e-mail address for further questions and comments.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>These information are necessary to reproduce whatever is
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failing, without them we cannot help you. Additional information -
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and patches - are very welcome!</p>
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<p><em>Please include only one bug per report.</em> Reports with
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multiple bugs are less easy to track and some bugs may get
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missed.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="feature" id="feature"></a>How to Submit A Feature
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Request</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>If you want Tidy to do something new that it doesn't do today
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(or stop doing something), then it is probably a feature
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request.</p>
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<p>The process for submitting a feature request is very similar to
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bug requests. A different <a
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href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=390966&group_id=27659">
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tracker</a> is used on SourceForge to denote the difference in
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subject matter.</p>
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<p>As with bugs, please be sure that the feature has not already
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been requested. If the feature has already requested, you can add
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your comments to the feature request tracker, or send mail to the
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<a href="mailto:html-tidy@w3.org">mailing list</a> indicating your
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wish to also have the feature implemented. If the feature has not
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already been requested, send the same information as for a bug
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report, but place special emphasis on the desired output for a
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given input, desired options, etc. - please be as specific as
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possible about what you want Tidy to <em>do</em>.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="layout" id="layout"></a>How Do I Control the Output Layout?</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>There are three primary options that control how Tidy
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formats your markup:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a class="code"
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href="quickref.html#indent">indent</a></li>
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<li><a class="code"
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href="quickref.html#indent-attributes">indent-attributes</a></li>
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<li><a class="code"
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href="quickref.html#vertical-space">vertical-space</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>Briefly, <code>indent</code> sets the level of left-to-right indenting
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and, somewhat, how often elements are put onto a new line. The options
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are <code>yes</code>, <code>no</code>, and <code>auto</code>.
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<code>indent-attributes</code> is a flag that, when set, tells Tidy to
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put each attribute on a new line. <code>vertical-space</code> is a flag
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that, when set, tells Tidy to add some empty lines for readability. The
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default for all three is <code>no</code>. These options may be used in
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any combination to control you you want your markup to look. The best
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thing is to experiment a bit to see what you like. Be aware that
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<code>indent yes</code> is deprecated for production use as it will
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cause visual changes in most browsers.</p>
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<p>To get Tidy <em>Classic</em> <code>--indent auto</code> layout, use the following options:</p>
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<pre>
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indent: auto
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indent-attributes: no
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vertical-space: yes
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</pre>
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<p>You can read about more <em>Pretty Print</em> options
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<a href="quickref.html#PrettyPrintHeader">here</a>.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="version" id="version"></a>What Version of Tidy Should
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I Use?</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>The current Source Forge builds are recommended. You can find these at
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<a href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net">http://tidy.sourceforge.net</a>.
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People continue to report examples where Tidy does not catch some
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ill-formed HTML or, worse, generates ill-formed HTML. These cases have
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been significantly reduced. That said, be sure to test Tidy with some
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representative files from your environment.</p>
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<p>For development work, use CVS directly on your development
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system. For information on how to pull Tidy sources from <a
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href="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=27659">CVS</a>. This way
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you can keep abreast of changes to Tidy and quickly resolve
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conflicts.</p>
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<p>For building a front end (e.g. GUI or language binding), the
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simplest approach is to use TidyLib. For more information
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about building and coding with TidyLib, see the <a
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href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/libintro.html">Introduction To TidyLib</a>.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><a name="regression" id="regression">How Do I Run A
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Regression Test?</a></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>You might ask, "Why should I run a regression test?". If you
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are a Tidy user, you might want to compare a new version of Tidy
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to the version you are currently running. This is a good idea
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if you are using Tidy in production applications such as web
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publishing. If you are a Tidy developer, it is a good idea to
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run the regression test suite to make sure your fix or enhancement
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doesn't add new bugs.</p>
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<p>Detecting new bugs is easier said than done, because sometimes
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they are subtle and can only be seen in browsers (or one particular
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browser you don't even have). But you can catch most crashes and
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many layout problems by running the test suite as described here.</p>
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<p>The basic process is simple: run the test suite <strong>before</strong>
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and <strong>after</strong> making changes to TidyLib and compare the output
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markup and messages. Be aware that the test scripts for WinNT/2K/XP
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(alltest.cmd) and Linux/Unix (testall.sh) place the output files in
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<code>tidy/test/tmp</code>. If you forget to run the <strong>before</strong>
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test, you can always download a binary from the <a
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href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/#binaries">Project Page</a>. If you
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are not a TidyLib developer, you can download the <a
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href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/test/tidy_test.tgz">Test Suite</a>
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directly. Here are the steps to evaluate the impact of a TidyLib change.</p>
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<h3>For Windows</h3>
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<p><strong>Before</strong> making changes:</p>
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<pre>
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C:\tidy\test> alltest.cmd
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C:\tidy\test> ren tmp baseline
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</pre>
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<p><strong>After</strong> making changes and building Tidy:</p>
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<pre>
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C:\tidy\test> alltest.cmd
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C:\tidy\test> windiff tmp baseline
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</pre>
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<h3>For Linux/Unix</h3>
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<p><strong>Before</strong> making changes:</p>
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<pre>
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~/tidy/test$ ./testall.sh
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~/tidy/test$ mv tmp baseline
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</pre>
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<p><strong>After</strong> making changes and building Tidy:</p>
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<pre>
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~/tidy/test$ ./testall.sh
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~/tidy/test$ diff -u tmp baseline > diff.txt
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</pre>
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</dd>
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</html>
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