Re: IFRAME

At 09:58 AM 7/10/97 +0200, Chapman, Hass wrote:
>Why have IFRAME then? Why not just use OBJECT?

I got the impression that were distinct.  There's a warning in
includes.html that states:

> Careful file inclusions. Be careful if you attempt to include a
> section of an HTML document defined by an anchor.  The entire
> document after the anchor definition will be included, and you
> might unwittingly include unwanted end tags (for elements such
> as BODY, HTML, etc.) in your document.

From this, I gather that an included HTML object is treated much like a
Server Side Include (or #include) -- you can include an HTML fragment that
ends your current document.

As I read it, the contents of the OBJECT's HTML file are treated as if they
were cut and paste into the original file.  (Useful for
including a navigation bar fragment or ADDRESS information across an entire
site: you can have a single file containing the information you want to
repeat, and then just include an OBJECT element pointing to that
information at the bottom of every file at your site.)

Is it the case that rendering of the included HTML object starts at the
point where the OBJECT element appears and continues to the end of the
included HTML file, then at the conclusion of the included HTML object,
rendering returns to the original document?

(If this interpretation is correct, the warning quoted above should
certainly apply to *all* HTML document objects, not just anchor-defined
HTML document objects.  Also, what meaning does HEIGHT and WIDTH have if
applied to an HTML object?  Does that then make it the same as IFRAME?)

In contrast, IFRAME seems to create a scrollable frame region that contains
a separate HTML file, as a separate object.  The contents
of any tags in the IFRAME's HTML file (such as a </TABLE>) do not apply to
the document with the IFRAME element as a whole -- the IFRAME's tags only
affect the region defined by the IFRAME.

A paragraph in the draft spec summarizing the difference (or similarity)
between these two elements would be very useful.  These two cross-reference
phrases appear in the spec:

> The IFRAME element may also be used to insert an inline frame
> containing text in an HTML document.

> Note: HTML documents may also be embedded in other HTML
> documents with the OBJECT element. See the section on
> including files in HTML documents for details.

These two phrases make it seem that these elements are
similar in behavior.
-- 
E. Stephen Mack <estephen@emf.net>          http://www.emf.net/~estephen/

Received on Thursday, 10 July 1997 06:17:05 UTC