A Node and Command Line Tool to Find Obsolete HTML
Published on Aug 12, 2024 (updated Nov 12, 2024), filed under tools, development, html, conformance. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)
This is one of 180 articles that you can also read in an ebook: On Web Development II.
Have you ever wondered if and where you have obsolete HTML in your codebase, whether center or spacer elements, or align or border attributes?
As there don’t seem to be many (any?) tools for that beyond HTML validators, I built a little Node.js helper to find obsolete and proprietary HTML—ObsoHTML, the Obsolete HTML Checker (source).
The package and repository pages have all the documentation.
As this started out as an AI experiment (more soon! more “here”!) and as I’m more of an HTML person, I may have missed something (maybe even “duh”-like). Contributions of any kind are welcome (as well as forking and remixing and what-not).
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)