RE: <a href="mailto:email address">

On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, David Norris wrote:

> It is browser specific in that it would only work in HTML.

That's an interesting new definition for "browser specific".  

> A URI is designed to be used outside of HTML, by itself.

It should also work within HTML, shouldn't it? And I still haven't 
seen an explanation of why one needs URIs for _messages_ or message
templates. (See my previous message.) And if they would be needed,
a new scheme should be designed just for them. (See my previous message.) 

> If then current mailto spec doesn't work on a browser then I am
> inclined to find one that works.  I am not one to complain that a 4 year old
> program doesn't work with my new way of doing things.  I just tend to
> complain for a minute and fix it.

That's your choice as a user. It's a different thing to make choices
as an HTML author (who decides whether to use ?Subject or not), or to
suggest something in a discusssion about the development of the HTML
language.

By the way, as I explained some messages ago, the "current mailto spec"
is in RFC 1738 (and it specifically forbids appending anything to the
E-mail address), despite the inappropriate "normative" reference to a working
draft in the HTML 4.0 spec.

> Since this is only a working draft, we shouldn't beat our heads over it :)

It is a working draft which is often referred to as if it were official.
And the use of the ?Subject hack is _very frequently_ suggested, without
any word of caution. There is a reason why this topic is discussed in
some length in the WDG HTML FAQ, at
http://www.htmlhelp.com/faq/wdgfaq.htm#44

HTML specifications should very clearly specify what are the normative
specifications for URIs as used in HTML (which might of course be a subset
of an approved specification for URIs in general--hardly a superset).

Yucca, http://www.hut.fi/u/jkorpela/ or http://yucca.hut.fi/yucca.html

Received on Thursday, 9 July 1998 04:01:08 UTC