Experimentation with extensions, LINK and META

I thought this had gone out last night, but evidently not so.

We are at pretty much of an impasse in the TABLES area.  I think
that the AXIS, AXES proposal fails to meet minimum standards of
functionality.  Dave doesn't see the problem.

Note: I am assuming that SCOPE is added to HTML as per Dave's
sketch.

If this area of TABLE markup cannot be amended so as to make it
functional, it should be removed so it does not obstruct the
introduction of a better-researched proposal from the WAI FP
activity at a later date.

The sketch below outlines some incremental enhancements to LINK
and META that would provide a rich capability for
meta-information experimentation without violating the DTD for
HTML4.

The information patterns that prove successful in experimetal
evaluation could then be migrated into HTML attributes.

-- Al Gilman

  http://www.access.digex.net/%7Easgilman/web-access/metainfo/extension.html

--
                        Extensions and Experimentation
                                       
Proposal for inclusion in HTML4

  Attributes
  
    TGTCLASS
    
     * takes a list of element type names and other CDATA strings
       comparable with list values in CLASS= attributes.
     * filters application of LINK and META values and relationships.
       
  Attributes on Elements
         ADD:
          + TGTCLASS to LINK and META
          + TARGET to META
       
  Content models
         ADD:
          + LINK and META may appear anywhere (in any container in HEAD
            or BODY).
       
  Semantics
       If a LINK or META element contains a TARGET then the relationship
       or attribute defined in the LINK or META element applies only
       within the scope of the TARGET element.
       If a LINK or META element appears within the HEAD element and it
       does not contain an explicit TARGET indication, then the target
       scope is the HTML element (document) in which the HEAD is found.
       If a LINK or META element appears outside the HEAD element and it
       does not contain an explicit TARGET indication, then the target
       scope is the non-void element immediately enclosing the LINK or
       META element. The immediately enclosing element shall be
       determined to be the non-void HTML element whose start tag most
       immediately precedes the LINK or META tag in the textual order of
       the HTML text.
       Furthermore, if the LINK or META contains a TGTCLASS attribute,
       then the relationship or attribute defined by the current LINK or
       META element applies only within elements in the TARGET scope
       which have at least one match between the set of identifiers in
       the value of the TGTCLASS attribute and the set of identifiers
       coprising the element type name of the candidate element together
       with the set of strings which are list elements in the value of a
       CLASS attribute present in the candidate element. This matching
       shall accept element type names without regard for case and CLASS
       values in a case-sensitive fashion.
        
If accepted, could replace

            Assuming that TH.scope is implemented substantially as
            outlined by Dave Raggett, the following attributes could be
            removed and experiments conducted with this capability:
              Replaced by uses of META
               o AXIS -- of current draft
               o ABBR -- of current draft
               o THROUGHOUT -- of alternative strawman
              Replaced by uses of LINK
               o AXES -- of current draft
               o TYPE on TH and TD -- of alternative strawman
               o CONDS on TH and TD -- of alternative strawman
            
Application to known WAI needs

            Associate table with a data dictionary or schema.
            Associate a dictionary with a quote or code block.
            Associate a dictionary with a particular use
            e.g.
            <LINK REL="dictionary" CLASS="abbreviation">
            
Appication to suspected WAI needs

            Override header associations for exceptional cells in a
            table.
            Mix metadata from multiple disciplines.

Received on Monday, 13 October 1997 12:58:08 UTC