kuroi:
Yes, they do. I use the HTML Validator add-in for Firefox that gives me an icon on every page to show if it is valid or not. It's a bit more difficult to keep track of in the Admin side of Zen Cart as there is still old, non-validating osCommerce code in there, but my mods never add non-validating code and, subject to a rule of minimal intrusion into core code, I remove or correct it where it falls into the areas which I am changing anyway.
Writing valid code isn't some geeky, ideal. It's just common-sense. It's so much easier to develop this way, than to try to fix the structural and cross-browser compatibility issues that arise later if you don't. That stills leaves the ... coughs ... Internet Explorer idiosyncrasies to be dealt with, but they're a known and widely documented quantity.
I like your idea of a campaign for valid mods, but I fully understand where Dr Byte is coming from. Performing a full test of all conditions, on all affected pages, for each of the hundreds of mods in the downloads section simply wouldn't be a feasible task. However, any non-validating code should be reported back to mod authors via their support threads.
I am only suggesting that the Administrators of ZC, whosoever they may be, create a body of guru volunteers which validates and Certifies the code for a given mod when installed in a 'fresh' and unmodified example of the then 'current' release of ZC.
I fully appreciate that it would be impossible to check every mod's effect on every other mod, but my suggestion would at least give the potential user some degree of reassurance in that it is clean code when used in a specified 'base' environment. Any changes in either ZC, or in a mod, would require that the mod is re-submitted for Certification.
The un-certified mods could still exist in the downloads area, but Certified mods woul be identified somehow.
This could be financed quite easily I would have thought. Let's say that each download requires that the user pays a modest sum for the right to download a 'certified' mod, say $1 irrespective of the complexity of the mod, then ZC Admin might generate quite a bit of income. This income could be used to reimburse those who are responsible for issuing the Certification!! (Personally I wouldn't object to paying $1 for a mod - many are worth much more - and I don't have a problem in the Admin using the money because it is for the benefit of all users, which is why we contribute the mods in the first place)
It's comforting to know that your mods do validate - I need to check my own modest contribution I suppose!!!
