- From: Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au>
- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:08:29 +0200
- To: Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi>, "public-html@w3.org WG" <public-html@w3.org>
L. David Baron wrote: > On Monday 2008-04-21 11:13 +0300, Henri Sivonen wrote: >> I think this is a bad recommendation. Browser defaults should please the >> mass of *authors*. If this is in conflict with pleasing users, users should >> have to opt in by flipping a pref. > > But users shouldn't have to become experts on which preferences to > modify in order to get the best experience on the Web. We should > provide the best experience to new users as much as to experienced > ones; this helps keep the Web usable to the masses rather than just > experts. The problem is that we have many years of experience telling us that authors will do whatever they can to force new windows upon users, using a variety of techniques ranging from target="_blank", to window.open() to Flash based hacks that bypass popup blockers in browsers. In many cases, authors have resorted to these measures just to get around the validity of target="" in HTML 4.01 Strict (see the many scripts that either insert target="" into the DOM, or attach event listeners and use window.open()). The reason for making _blank conforming was to help reverse this situation. By making target="_blank" non-functional by default, you're taking away the least-user-hostile approach from authors and forcing them to use the other alternatives, which just makes a bad situation worse. -- Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software http://lachy.id.au/ http://www.opera.com/
Received on Monday, 21 April 2008 09:09:13 UTC