Re: [HTML 4.0 draft] (further) comments on ACRONYM

On Tue, 15 Jul 1997, Aymeric Poulain Maubant wrote:

> The above example shows the limits of the smart filter. This smart filter
> produced many HTML files, some of them the document itself, others meta
> document like toc, glossary, a.s.o. The above HTML code was written
> automatically. Perfect !
> But for the end user, accessing the complete definition of the acronym,
> or a complete bib entry, or anything else means an interruption in the reading.
> It would be much smarter to have a popup or anything else (except loading a new
> HTML file in the same window) to present this auxilliary data. And this is why
> a good definition of such objects (acronyms, bib entries...) is needed.

Brief suggestion:

<P>After some pondering, Stephanos decided that a good way to have easy
access to acronym definitions in <ACRONYM TITLE="Hypertext Markup
Language">HTML</ACRONYM> is using the <CODE>TITLE</CODE> attribute.

TITLE is usually rendered as a tool-tip, easily output by a smart filter as
quick access to glossary definitions, and valid for ACRONYM as in
struct/text.html#edef-ACRONYM in the HTML 4.0 spec. No other uses for TITLE
on an ACRONYM come to mind, so this could be the intended use :-7

No nead for client-side scripting, new attributes or whatever :)

Ideally:

<A HREF="glossary.html#HTML" TITLE="Glossary entry for HTML"><ACRONYM
TITLE="Hypertext Markup Language">HTML</ACRONYM></A>

With A ACRONYM being defined as a rather unobtrusive style in your CSS
stylesheet so the document isn't messy with visible hyperlinks :)

This way:

- You can have your acronyms not stand out without having to worry about
classes as selectors

- Have instant access to acronym expansions via a TITLE-based tool-tip

- Do this without changing the spec and introducing new features.

--
    Stephanos "Pippis" Piperoglou - http://users.hol.gr/~spip/index.html
All I wanted in my life was a little love and a lot of money. In that order.
                [ Failure is a crime. Defeat; an atrocity! ]

                                                   ...oof porothika

Received on Tuesday, 15 July 1997 20:49:27 UTC