Re: <a> and @href (was: Re: XHTML 2.0: Suggestion for <addr/> and <blockaddr/> to replace <address/>)

Hi,

On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 08:57:58PM -0500, Ernest Cline wrote:

> However, the cite attribute could be handled by using href in
> conjunction with rel.  Perhaps that is the direction we should go.

Exactly. That's a thing I wanted to suggest anyways.

<a href="URL" rel="cite"> looks *much* more intuitive to me than a
redundant "cite" attribute.

> Drop both the cite and href attributes from the Hypertext Attribute
> Collection.  Add a new attribute called "link" that takes a URI.

I do not see any reason to rename it. "Reference" is a more generic
term, and also more precisely describes the attribute. "link" would
actually seem quite unfitted for citations, while "href" (or maybe just
"ref"?) is ideal.

> Then specify that in XHTML2, a specific linktype such as "Hyperlink"
> is required to cause the element to be treated as an ordinary
> single-clickable link (assuming the usual visual browser convention
> that is). Then the <a> element could have the purpose of being able to
> indicate such a link without having to specify the rel attribute.  

I think "hyperlink" simply should be the default value, describing a
general link without specific meaning. (Regardless of what element.)

> 2) Eliminate a potential source of conflict over the metainfo
> attributes such as type and hreflang as to whether they refer to cite
> or href.

This seems especially important. Giving both cite and href makes no
sense. They do the same, and they should be the same. The fact that the
metadata-conflict will just vanish, makes it even clearer that this is
the more natural way to go.

> If the src attribute from the Embedding Attribute Collection were also
> changed to use "link" and a specific value of "rel" to achieve the
> effect we could eliminate yet another attribute and source of conflict
> over the metainfo attributes at the expense of being not able to do a
> hyperlink or a cite in the same element as an embedding.  That looks
> like something authors would be likelier to do than want to use cite
> and href on the same element so I don't know if it would be worth it.

Exactly. I don't think "src" should be eliminated as well. "src" has a
different meaning than "href"; and in contrast to "cite", it *does* make
sense to give both "href" and "src" for the same element.

-Olaf-

Received on Monday, 8 December 2003 02:26:26 UTC