Re: [..] Navigation

On 13 May 98, david_richmond@nl.compuware.com wrote:

>      Something which could be seen as missing from HTML is formal 
>      Navigation definition.
>      
>      Most web pages I visit have some sort of navigation 'toolbar' above, 
>      below, and/or to the side of every page.
>      
>      This indicates that the navigation parts of a page are important to 
>      the page and therefore are a candidate for some special HTML treatment 
>      (a la that given to Tables and Lists).

That's what the LINK element is/was intended for, but it hasn't
materialized in the "major" browsers and is a little messy and
inconsistent in Lynx and Mosaic.

What's needed is not a special new element but the use an existing 
element by vendors/manufacturers and authors:

A *standard* set of relationships should be *clearly* defined for LINK 
so that vendors and authors can make use of them. The standard would
include minimum requirements for authos and agent implementors.

In terms of navigation, I would prefer using a LINK reference to RDF or 
something else that maps a site. Document relationships are defined 
outside the document, which makes maintenance and organization easier.

The content should be separated from the meta-content to a degree.

Why? It's inconvenient to maintain navigation links in hundreds of 
documents. 

Rob

Received on Thursday, 14 May 1998 15:37:00 UTC