[whatwg] Allowing ">" in attribute values

Wed Jun 23 19:13:56 PDT 2010

The HTML5 spec appears to allow ">" inside an attribute value.  For
example, the following page (note the body tag) passes the experimental
HTML5 validator at w3c.org:

<!DOCTYPE HTML><html><head><title></title></head>
<body class="3>2">
</body></html>

I think ">" should be disallowed inside attribute values.   It is
disallowed in XHTML [1].  It is disallowed in HTML 4.01 [2].  Disallowing
it in HTML5 would avoid unnecessary divergence, and also sometimes
simplify parsing.

--Ben

[1] according to the validator in XHTML 1.1 Strict mode.

'character ">" is not allowed in the value of attribute'

[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/charset.html#h-5.3.2

"Similarly, authors should use ">" (ASCII decimal 62) in text instead
of ">" to avoid problems with older user agents that incorrectly perceive
this as the end of a tag (tag close delimiter) when it appears in quoted
attribute values."

It is also disallowed by the HTML 4.01 Strict validator.

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