Re: Clarifications to definition of "active element"

Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> 
> Well, in this sense active elements come from the authors understanind of
> HTML, but that isn't the definitive characteristic. The definitive
> characteristic of an active element is the fact that it has behaviour
> associated with it. There may be a constraint that this does not include
> behaviour that is generated by the User agent, but I think this is wrong.
> 
> Example:
> A user agent constructs an outline view of a page, by extracting the headers.
> This is represented as a seperate page, that can be navigated to with a
> standard command. (Lynx does this all the time. Amaya does it too, but always
> opens a new window. Mozilla composer does it in the same window. The
> representation, not the outline view, is what I mean is implemented). In
> addition, the user agent adds linking behaviour to these items, which links
> them to the coresponding point in the original document. I would argue that
> no behaviour is specified by the content, and that the user agent has
> attached the behaviour. As a technique for implemnenting a requirement of
> UAAG.

Why do you say that the user agent has attached the behavior? The
definition says that what is active is determined by content, not
the author. If the user agent implements the navigable outline view
in HTML, then HTML links define the behavior. What is the format
that the user agent is using to implement this outline view? Where
does the user agent store the fact that selecting a particular
entry links to an original location in the document? In this case,
the user agent is the author of the content, but the content still
is where the user agent (as user agent now, no longer as generator
of content) locates the linking semantics.

 - Ian
 
-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Wednesday, 31 January 2001 00:53:48 UTC