Efficient linking between sections of different documents

Here I am suggesting a mechanism for more efficient linking
between sections in different documents.

Many times the anchors refer to a 'NAME' in another document
and on being clicked, the entire (referred) document is
fetched with the 'NAME' positioned at the top of the screen.

I think fetching _entire_ document is undesirale for two
reasons:
1. It wastes bandwidth.  Sometimes the relevent reference is
   only of one or two lines while the file consists of 500 or
   more lines.  It wastes time also esp. if the reference is
   somewhere towards the end of the documents.
2. It distracts the attention of the reader towards other
   unrelated topics.

This mechanism will require server to do some processing but
I think ultimately it will result in net savings to the Net 
community.

There is no need to add any additional tag.  Only a new
convention needs to be defined.  I suggest that the referred
content be enclosed as follows:

[Start of the document]
...
<a name="xyz">Heading</a>...Content...<a name="/xyz"></a>
...
[End of the document]

The server will search for "xyz" and then "/xyz". It will
return the content starting from "xyz" till "/xyz".  If there
is no "/xyz" (current practice), it will return the whole
document starting from "xyz".

In case somebody has already given names starting with "/" in
his/her docs then server will still fetch the content
starting with that name (and ending if it finds "//name").

Please send your comments pointing out what are other issues
related with this, what are the obstacles and what are other
advantages or if it has already been implemented somewhere.

Ankur.

Received on Wednesday, 26 June 1996 01:24:57 UTC