[LINK] Bad government web sites

[Ivan Trundle]

Might have responded more quickly if you'd written 'http:// 
cas.gov.au', but never mind (the difference between a clickable link  
or just a string of characters in my mail browser).

It opens in Safari on Mac, but it's ugly, and the content isn't well  
placed - a dud style sheet, for starters. In fact, no cross-browser  
testing, by the look of it (different in Firefox and IE7).

The site generates an internal server error at  http://validator.w3.org/

It's a miracle that it parses at all for some browsers. Just goes to  
show how tolerant browsers have to be.

The home page claims to be XHTML in its doctype declaration, but the  
first two lines show that whoever built it doesn't understand XHTML,  
or forgot. There are 142 errors in the home page validation alone  
using the tools that I have at my disposal.

If the doctype was HTML instead, it would improve the situation, but  
not much.

By the time you get to line 287, there are so many errors that it  
becomes useless to check the code anymore.

There are newly-invented tags in the html markup, such as <a  
href="http://www.accesscard.gov.au/" target="_new"> (_blank, _self,  
_parent, and _top are okay, _new is not in the html or xhtml set).

A javascript code snippet at line 367 is not escaped properly, and  
again at line 389.

There is a quote missing from some html earlier than this, which  
throws it all into a level of instability.

It uses a div element with invalid parameters and open img tags (some  
are closed), which leads the browser to open a div before the  
previous element is closed - this requires some work by the browser.

No <li> items are closed, which is fine in loose html but not  
acceptable in XHTML.

It uses uppercase tags when these are not permitted in XHTML.

Overall, it's simply sloppy work all round, and whilst others might  
declare that the site is fine and dandy from their perspective, one  
look under the bonnet tells me that it's a Mickey Mouse (TM) job,  
with a mishmash of coding from what looks like at least two different  
people.

iT


On 19/08/2007, at 8:09 PM, Howard Lowndes wrote:

> Could someone please test csa.gov.au   I tried to go there with  
> Firefox 1.5.0.12 under Linux and I get a minimal response and a  
> hangup.  I have the script blocker off.
>
>
> -- 
> Howard.
> LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http:// 
> lannetlinux.com>
> When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
> When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
> --
> Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian  
> states.
>
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--
Ivan Trundle
http://globallearning.com.au ivan at globallearning.com.au
ph: +61 (0)2 6249 1344 mb: +61 (0)418 244 259
skype: callto://ivanovitchk