Re: problems with frames

On 21 May 97 at 23:19, www-html@w3.org wrote:

> On Wed, 21 May 1997, Dataweaver wrote:
> 
> > I would like to suggest a few improvements on frame implementation:
> > 
> > 1. It would be useful to have a TARGET attribute in a FRAME tag; the effect 
> >    would be similar to having a <BASE TARGET=url> in every html document loaded 
> >    into that frame.  
> 
> My automatic reaction is - why? Are you so lazy you can't set the BASE, or
> even get your editor/page construction tool to set it for you? Then I
> thought something worse: it's highly confusing. If you have a single HTML
> document, you should really be able to tell, from within the document,
> roughly what each link will do. Moving targetting out into the
> frame-parent document would make things too confusing IMO.

IMHO, it would be useful for those who want to have a particular page viewable 
by a frame-capable browser either in a frame or not; with the <BASE TARGET=url> 
tag, any attempt to follow a link out of the page when it is not being used in 
a frame results in a new window being opened.  

> > 2. I would like to see a method of overriding the initial frame contents in the 
> >    URL; as an example:
> > 
> >    frameset.html##frame2=src3.html
> >    [would load frameset.html with frame2 containing src3.html instead
> >     off what was specified in frameset.html]
> 
> If you want this functionality I suggest you write a CGI script which
> allows you to do something like:
> 
> <URL:http://your.host.here/frameset.html?frame2=src3.html>

Agreed; I've done this myself.  But what I'm looking for is something that will 
allow a browser's history list to record a new page being loaded into a frame.  
AFAIK, no browser has any means of doing this, so if I've been navigating 
around within a certain frameset for a while and I want to back up five steps, 
I have to hit the "Go Back" button five times; I cannot simply pull up the 
history list and select where I was five steps ago.  
 
> > On a somewhat-related note, I'd suggest allowing simple arithmetic (addition 
> > and subtraction would probably suffice) in WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes; for 
> > example,
> > 
> >    WIDTH=100%-50
> 
> You mean: WIDTH="100%-50". However I don't see what the point is anyway.
> Obviously the 100% wouldn't usefully refer to the width of the image,
> since you could calculate it by hand. If you meant to make the image 50
> units (units being what? Pixels? Centimetres?) smaller than the page
> width, then you'll run (as usual) into rendering problems.

The 100% refers to the page's width; I want to put an image into a page so that 
the text that comes after it is effectively placed in a 50-pixel-wide column to 
the right of the image, and I want the image to be resized so that it takes up 
the remainder of the left side of the page.  How would I do this?  

------------  Jonathan Lang  --------------+-----------------------------------
   "Dataweaver", mailto:traveler@io.com    | The Dogma of Otherness insists
  "BTfL", mailto:owner-gurpsnet-l@io.com   | that all voices deserve a hearing,
  mailto:owner-gurpsworld-l@lists.io.com   | that all points of view have
Web: http://www.io.com/~traveler/site.html | something of value to offer.
Archive: ftp://ftp.io.com/pub/usr/traveler | --David Brin, "Otherness"

Received on Wednesday, 21 May 1997 19:21:47 UTC