Re: <NEWHTML>???

On Thu, 5 Mar 1998, Alex Fabrikant wrote:

> With HTML advancing as fast as it is, a fundamental question comes to
> mind, for which no satisfactory answer as of yet exists. How will it possible
> to create an HTML document in HTML x.y (where x>4) so that any browser
> supporting a version of HTML that exists today will be given an alternative
> to any codes that are new in HTML x.y?

True point.  But let me make a counter-proposal:

<!ELEMENT ALT - - (%inline;)* -- backward-compatability text -->
<!ATTLIST ALT
  %attrs:                     -- %coreattrs, %il8n, %events --
  noelement   CDATA           -- potentially unknown element --
  >

Start tag: required, End tag: required

Attribute definitions

noelement = cdata[CI]
  The name of the element that the alt element is supposed to substitute
  for; if the element named is recognized by the parser, the contents of
  the ALT element are ignored.  If the noelement attribute is not included
  in an ALT element, use the name of the most recently encountered element
  prior to the ALT element.  

Attributes defined elsewhere

  * id, class (document-wide identifiers)
  * lang (language information), dir (text direction)
  * title (element title)
  * style (inline style information)
  * onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove,
    onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup (intrinsic events)

This element designates backward-compatability text; it is designed to
replace and expand on the capabilities of the NOFRAMES and NOSCRIPT
elements, which would be depreciated in favor of this element.  

This example illustrates a basic use of the ALT element:

E = m c <SUP><ALT>^</ALT>2</SUP>

DEPRECIATED EXAMPLE: 
The following NOFRAMES declaration: 

     <NOFRAMES>
     <P>Here is the <A href="main-noframes.html">
              non-frame based version of the document.</A> 
     </NOFRAMES>

could be rewritten with ALT as follows:

     <ALT noelement="frame">
     <P>Here is the <A href="main-noframes.html">
              non-frame based version of the document.</A>
     </ALT>

DEPRECIATED EXAMPLE:
The following NOSCRIPT declaration:

<SCRIPT type="text/tcl">
 ...some Tcl script to insert data...
</SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT>
 <P>Access the <A href="http://someplace.com/data">data.</A>
</NOSCRIPT>

could be rewritten as follows:

<SCRIPT type="text/tcl">
 ...some Tcl script to insert data...
</SCRIPT>
<ALT noelement="script">
 <P>Access the <A href="http://someplace.com/data">data.</A>
</ALT>

----

Comments and criticism?

---- Jonathan Lang <traveler@io.com>

Received on Friday, 6 March 1998 12:34:35 UTC