HTML Tidy rocks

For a little while, in an earlier test version, we had embedded HTML Tidy in NetNewsWire. We ended up not needing it—but I still want to say how cool HTML Tidy is.

The thing was, we needed a way to create valid XHTML. I knew about HTML Tidy, but I expected it would use the GPL license, and so we wouldn’t be able to use it.

I went and checked it out anyway—just in case, on the long shot that it was cool to use it—and, to my surprise, it was.

But then we also needed it to be easy-to-use. I didn’t want to spend hours learning some complicated API, I wanted something easy, where I could say: “Here’s some tag soup. Please give me back some valid XHTML.”

To my delight, that’s pretty much how it worked. Very easy.

The last thing we had to worry about was performance. Was it fast? Yes, it was. I couldn’t perceive a difference between when it was on and when it was off. (Of course, timing tests would show the difference, but a user would never have noticed it.)

So, to the HTML Tidy folks—even though I didn’t end up needing it—I present a small bouquet of <flowers />.