- From: Lachlan Hunt <lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au>
- Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:44:25 +0100
- To: Jeff Schiller <codedread@gmail.com>
- CC: public-html@w3.org
Jeff Schiller wrote: > I'm not sure why _blank was not made conforming, can anyone give the > history? I believe it was made non-conforming because forcing new windows upon users is a very user-hostile thing to do, and making it non-conforming was intended as a way to discourage that practice. However, evidence suggests that authors just don't care how much they annoy users and use various techniques to open popups anyway. Unfortunately, the alternative approaches using window.open() that authors fall back to when they're told they can't use target="_blank" are much worse from the user's perspective, since it's much harder (though still possible) to override. Therefore, the one and only valid and convincing reason to allow target="_blank" is because it is the least user-hostile approach to opening new windows and should be encouraged over other alternatives (although the practice of opening new windows at all should still be strongly discouraged). -- Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software http://lachy.id.au/ http://www.opera.com/
Received on Sunday, 17 February 2008 15:44:41 UTC