- From: Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de>
- Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:48:38 +0200
- To: Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>
- CC: HTTP Working Group <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
Mark Nottingham wrote:
> ...
> The alternative is to say that the 'stylesheet alternate' combination
> isn't specific to how it's serialised, but is tied to the occurrence of
> the links. I.e., when both relations are present in links between the
> same resources, these special semantics take affect. However, this does
> seem to directly conflict with the HTML4 language (see link above), so I
> don't think doing so is viable.
>
> Comments?
> ...
It seems that the use of rel="alternate stylesheet" actually is a bug in
HTML4, in that it's not consistent with the definition of the
"alternate" link relation:
"Alternate
Designates substitute versions for the document in which the link
occurs. When used together with the lang attribute, it implies a
translated version of the document. When used together with the media
attribute, it implies a version designed for a different medium (or
media)." -- <http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/types.html#type-links>
So the meaning of "alternate", when combined with "stylesheet", really
changes from the default meaning.
Proposal: acknowledge this inconsistency, and contain it to the HTML
syntax, thus
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" href="/foo.css" />
becomes something like
Link: </foo.css>; rel="alternate-stylesheet stylesheet"
in an HTTP header (mapping "alternate" to "alternate-stylesheet" if and
only if it's used together with "stylesheet").
BR, Julian
Received on Wednesday, 8 April 2009 12:49:24 UTC