[Bug 6610] add a preventable forced-fragment method

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=6610





--- Comment #2 from Nick Levinson <Nick_Levinson@yahoo.com>  2009-02-24 04:31:32 ---
On first impression only, it looks to me like XPointer technology will work, if
it's true a user can use XPointer to identify fragments that an author did not
distinguish, but apparently XPointer is only for XML-related media types, which
probably excludes most Web content. With HTML's prevalence, document authors
generally strive for compatibility only with HTML and implicitly XHTML and may
not take the time to divide a document into many fragments and identify them.
Thus, in practice, it seems XPointer will usually be irrelevant. HTML can
provide a rudimentary facility so that when an author does not signify
fragments a reader can do so, even on old unfragmented documents, even without
XML compatibility, and then the reader can tell a prospective reader how to get
to the good part without any cooperation from the author.

We often don't notice the problem because of the American practice of having
many short pages rather than a few long pages and because popular fast-pacing
means many people give a page only a minute or two to reveal the desired
information before the seeker goes elsewhere. Someone who leaves usually does
not thereafter ask someone else where that missing information was. They'll
just say the info wasn't there. So they don't find the information and the
person who told them it's there is probably judged to be less reliable, because
they promised information that evidently wasn't there.

An HTML facility needn't be as well-controlled as XPointer's. But there should
be something.

Thanks, including for the links.

-- 
Nick


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Received on Tuesday, 24 February 2009 04:31:43 UTC