New install (no editing or plugs added yet) w3c 89 validation errors!?

EDIT:

Created a 2011 child theme following the WP basic style.css instructions (copy/paste replacing with my child name and sites info) and activated it. W3C validation is now showing 1 error. “34 #site-title, #site-description Value Error : clip Invalid separator in shape definition. It must be a comma. : rect(1px 1px 1px 1px)”. Cant seem to find any information on how to fix this though… suggestions?

In my opinion, validation should be seen as a tool, as a mere means to an end, with the end goal being to provide the intended experience for site visitors, please the client, meet the project spec, whatever the case may be.

As with any tool, there should be a business case for implementing it.

In your case, I’m not sure there is: Validation for it’s own sake is, in my opinion, a waste of time. Validation as a tool to achieve accessibility, cross-browser consistency, performance … THOSE are valid (get it?) reasons to worry about validation.

Look at google.com: 24 validation errors. Who cares? Probably very few people.

Couldn’t your time be better spent on some other aspect of whatever goal you’re trying to achieve?

Also, to your question, I think some browsers are expecting the values for clip() to be comma-delineated, so try that.

I’m seeing it implemented thusly on a few sites:

clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); clip: rect(1px,1px,1px,1px);

Thank you for your reply.

The reason being this.. I had spent a week making my very first WP 2011 theme based website(without a child theme, which I had never heard of) and had it running perfectly (or so I thought). Then upon checking the site in other browsers found issues(IE and mobile appearance issues). Upon further investigation found out about the whole idea of child themes, posted a question in forum and got a simple reply of check W3C to find out what is going on. Despite the site working fine in Chrome and Firefox, there were around 200 errors and I forget how many warnings, anyway, the advice I was given was that it would be best to start fresh and build the site again using a child theme. I’ve done just that. Obviously, I’m a total newbie with WP, but as my initial post says, all of these errors from the very beginning had me worried. I can live with the errors and warnings, however many there me be, but only if the site actually functions properly across all browsers.

My end goal is as mentioned. I’m asking questions now, in hopes of doing things right the first time to avoid issues and the need to start all over again later on down the road.

As for the one error I’m left with right now, I don’t really understand what exactly needs to be changed… my child theme style.css only has the following coding (with my name/site replacing the appropriate fields):

/*
Theme Name: twentyeleven-child-theme
Theme URI: https://example.com
Description: Child theme for the Twenty Eleven theme
Author: Your name here
Author URI: https://example.com
Template: twentyeleven
Version: 1.4
*/

If this isn’t the culprit, where do you think it might be located in the stock 2011 parent theme? Might as well go ahead and fix it if I can.

Also, to your question, I think some browsers are expecting the values for clip() to be comma-delineated, so try that.

I’m seeing it implemented thusly on a few sites:

clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); clip: rect(1px,1px,1px,1px);

Two points to bear in mind when validating an HTML5 site:

1. The validator is experimental.
2. The HTML5 specification is still in draft form and is not expected to become a formal spec for a while yet.

So we have possibly dodgy validation software try to validate sites against a spec that isn’t fixed. All in all, not exactly a situation where you can put a lot of faith in the result. As Scott has already said, validators are tools – often helpful – but just tools nonetheless. Don’t switch your brain off when you turn the validator on and never accept its results at face value. You should, instead, use your best judgement along with the relevant specs when interpreting the results.

Thanks, this is good to know as I continue on with building my site.