Popup windows: problems and some solutions

>Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 22:59:50 -0800
>From: Heikki Vesalainen <wes@clinet.fi>
>Subject: Popup windows: problems and some solutions

I really hate to say this, but I think we're making a big mountain out of 
a molehill concerning footnotes.

We already have the proposed <FN> tag, so why are we even bothing with <A 
NAME> and <A TARGET>.  

NAME and TARGET currently don't work as a method for implementing 
footnotes (or Pop-Up Notes, whatever), so why is everyone so excited 
about it.  It's already been pointed out that there are problems with 
implementation, along with conflicts of nested A tags.  All of which 
would be alleviated by using FN to indicate a footnote section in the 
same HTML file (or even a different one).

But now we have questions about "how should it pop up?  what size should 
it be? how will it be printed?"  They're valid concerns but they're 
secondary above all else.

1.  More than likely a pop-up note would be of a width proportional to 
the window is is currently being viewed in, and rendered to be roughly 
"square" more than likely, but margins could probably be overridden by 
stylesheets.

2.  Since the pop-up is a link, it will pop-up once it is clicked on just 
like any other link.  I suppose if you wanted to, you could add a TITLE 
to the A tag to give an even smaller bit of descriptive text on your 
browser's status bar.  It would then disappear probably with either a 
close button, a click on somewhere else within the main window, or 
perhaps after a brief delay.  So just let the browser handle it.

3.  When printed, they would be either printed at the bottom of the page 
(and perhaps numbered accordingly) as footnotes, or at the end of the 
file like endnotes.

Yes, FN is not widely implemented, but it's already been proposed.  Why 
are we trying to reinvent the wheel when it's full of holes and it still 
won't get you any further than the original?

Oh yeah, and this stuff would have to go....

> <NOPOPUP>
> Your browser doesn't support popups, get a new one!
> </NOPOPUP> 

We're having a bad enough time as it is with frames.


----------------------- Christopher P. Josephes ----------------------------
Email |  mailto:cpj1@winternet.com
Web   |  http://www.winternet.com/~cpj1/

Received on Thursday, 21 March 1996 00:51:45 UTC