- From: Dave Hollander <dmh@hpsgml.fc.hp.com>
- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:18:47 -0600
- To: www-html@w3.org, www-talk@w3.org
Hello, As I understand this process, proposals are supposed to be posted to this mail list and a rough consensus reached. I have seen many issues not receive sufficient attention to reach consensus, this proposal resurfaces one of them. Please read the proposal and respond, either to the list or to me and I will summarize. _____________________________________________________________________ PROPOSED Change to HTML 3.0: I would like to suggest either: The BASE element allows the document itself to identify the most | effective URL to be used to refer to the document. The base element | may be used in situations in which the document may be read out of | context. All and only URLs within the document that are in a | "partial" form are to be considered relative to this base address. | The default base address is the URL used to retrieve the document. or ...leave base as is and add... The Bookmark element permits the document itself to identify the most effective URL to be used to refer to this document. Bookmark elements may be used to establish a prefered URL when a document may be reached through multiple URLs. The default bookmark address is the base address. I prefer the second, but would accept the former if tag proliferation is the issue. Also, this can not be done at the HTTP level because there is no reliable way to communicate the bookmark element to the server except through the document. WHY? On July 10, Ben Adida proposed [2]: I'm thinking that a useful new tag could be something like : <bookmark href="http://foo.bar.com"> which would tell the browser to bookmark that URL instead of the one in the actual Document URL box at the top of the screen.... What do you think ?? to which Shel Kaphan replied: "do you really want to give server operators control over your hotlist?" Yes I do. Server operators know what server facilities are available, not the browser user. This does not mean that the server operator can place things in the hotlist, just inform the browser of the most effective URL to use. I can find no other comments, nor any response from the primary html 3.0 developers. As detailed in [4], I am using a jumpstation on www.hp.com to establish long standing indirect names for use in links and hotlists. The only means I can find help readers use this "go" facility is the base tag. According to "HyperText Markup Language Specification 3.0" [1]. The BASE element allows the URL of the document itself to be recorded in situations in which the document may be read out of context. URLs within the document may be in a "partial" form relative to this base address. The default base address is the URL used to retrieve the document. This statement is not sufficient to tell information providers how to manage what URLS others know their document by. Nor does this make it clear for browser developers what should be displayed as the location of this document or if it is legal to use the base URL for non-relative URLs. I just had this debate in private with one browser developer who insists my usage is "non-standard" and should not be supported. Should the base allow the URL of a document to be recorded in situations where the document may be know in context (aka no imagemaps) but available through multiple methods? Regards, Dave Hollander References: 1. <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/html3/dochead.html"> The Head Element and Related Elements </a> (html 3.0) 2. <a href="http://gummo.stanford.edu/hypermail/www-talk-1995q3/0021.html"> a BOOKMARK tag ?? </a> 3. <a href="http://gummo.stanford.edu/html/hypermail/www-html-1995q2/0234.html"> BASE processing by browsers, Grzegorz Staniak </a> 4. <a href="http://gummo.stanford.edu/hypermail/www-talk-1995q2/0435.html"> Browser Displayed URL </a> 5. <a href="http://gummo.stanford.edu/hypermail/www-talk-1995q2/0439.html"> Re: Browser Displayed URL </a> _________________________________________________________________________ Dave Hollander Hewlett-Packard Internet Technology Program Manager 3404 East Harmony Road, MS. 6U10 dmh@corp.hp.com Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 Access HP - http://www.hp.com 970-229-3192 _________________________________________________________________________
Received on Wednesday, 26 July 1995 15:25:59 UTC