anchors in W3C specs

What is the accepted way of doing links in the published
HTML for W3C specs?

Specifically, I'm concerned with the use link targets such 
as <div id="foo"> that are expected to be the target of a
link such as <a href="#foo">.  While this is allowable in
XHTML, this is not compatible with HTML and does not follow 
the XHTML guidelines for compatibility with HTML browsers;
such links do not work, for example, in Netscape 4.x browsers.

I have noted an increasing number of such links in W3C 
documents, and I note with great concern that the W3C link 
validator does not even so much as give a warning for such 
links which are effectively BROKEN for all Netscape users.

Personally, I'd like to see our pub styles indicate that
W3C specs should follow the XHTML compatibility guideline
that suggests targets of the form <a id="foo" name="foo">
are used, and I'd like to see the link validator give
errors (or at least warnings) for link targets using an
id since that won't work in many of the deployed browsers.

paul

Received on Tuesday, 4 December 2001 12:28:09 UTC