Navigation bars (was Re: HTML4.0 draft: comments ...)

David Marsh wrote:

| I must object to the proposed inclusion of frames, and instead would propose
| a revision to the now obsolete HTML3.0 BANNER element in their place:
| 
| *   Allow the inclusion of *one* (or at most two) independently scrolling
|     _navigation bars_ per page, (to serve a purpose similar to the most
|     common frame use)

How about dusting MENU a bit by permitting it in the document
head (where something like this should be dealt with) for
that purpose? Imagine this:

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Section 2, chapter 3</TITLE>

<MENU>
        <LI><A HREF="../index.html">Contents</A>
        <LI><A HREF="../section1/index.html">Section 1</A>
        <LI>Section 2
        <LI><A HREF="../section3/index.html">Section 3</A>
</MENU>

<MENU>
        <LI><A HREF="index.html">Index</A>
        <LI><A HREF="chapter1.html">Chapter 1</A>
        <LI><A HREF="chapter2.html">Chapter 2</A>
        <LI>Chapter 3
        <LI><A HREF="chapter4.html">Chapter 4</A>
</MENU>

</HEAD>

The specs should remind authors to choose short link texts,
because browsers might render the lists horizontally. (Note
that the content model for MENU is "(LI)+ -(%blocklevel)", so
that only inline elements are allowed within the list items,
no paragraph breaks or so.)

Perhaps the TITLE attribute could be used to clarify what the
bar refers to: In the example, the second <MENU> might be
replaced by <MENU TITLE="Section 2">, so that the reader
knows the links lead to the chapters in that section. Sure,
that should be obvious from the fact that this is the section
the current chapter belongs to, but things needn't always be
arranged that clearly.

____  |__|   / Holger   //       mailto:wahlen@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de  ____
      |  |/|/  Wahlen  //  http://www.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de/~wahlen/

Received on Friday, 22 August 1997 16:29:00 UTC