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.)
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 at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma).
I love trying things—in web development and engineering management, but also in politics and philosophy, where I hold to one idea in particular: that we can only be well if we take good care of everyone. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my perspectives and experiences. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)