<meta> anywhere (was Re: [XHTML2] meta attribute)

On 7/31/03 1:11 PM, "Jeroen Budts" <jbudts@mail.be> wrote:

> 
> I propose a new attribute: the meta attribute, which has the type IDREF (or
> maybe IDREFS?). It makes a reference to some meta data specific to that part
> of the page. Here is an example:
> 
> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/06/xhtml2" xml:lang="nl-be">
> <head>
>   <!-- the following is meta data about the entire page -->
>   <meta name="author">Jeroen Budts</meta>
>   <!-- and the following only about the quote -->
>   <meta id="AndyQuote">
>     <meta name="author">Andy Warhol</meta>
>     <meta name="DC.Language">en-us</meta>
>     <meta name="DC.Title">THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol</meta>
>     <meta name="chapter">4 - Beauty</meta>
>     <meta name="page">71</meta>
>   </meta>
> </head>
> 
> <body>
>   <p>
>     Het volgende citaat vind ik best wel leuk:
>     <blockquote xml:lang="en-us" meta="#AndyQuote">
>       The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
>       The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
>       The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
>       Pecking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet.
>     </blockquote>
>   </p>
> </body>
> </html>
> 
> In this way we would be able to give a lot more information about parts of a
> webpage.

Interesting idea.  How about simply allowing a single optional <meta> (which
could then contain any number of additional <meta>) to be inside any element
(with default styling of {display:none} of course) so that the metadata
could be optionally neatly bundled with the specific parts of a webpage?
E.g. using your example:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/06/xhtml2" xml:lang="nl-be">
<head>
  <!-- the following is meta data about the entire page -->
  <meta name="author">Jeroen Budts</meta>
</head>

<body>
  <p>
    Het volgende citaat vind ik best wel leuk:
    <blockquote xml:lang="en-us">
     <!-- and the following only about the quote -->
     <meta>
      <meta name="author">Andy Warhol</meta>
      <meta name="DC.Language">en-us</meta>
      <meta name="DC.Title">THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol</meta>
      <meta name="chapter">4 - Beauty</meta>
      <meta name="page">71</meta>
     </meta>
      The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
      The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
      The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
      Pecking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet.
    </blockquote>
  </p>
</body>
</html>

This would also make it unnecessary to have a separate 'meta' attribute,
since you could use <meta src=""> to reference a (perhaps common) block of
meta information in the <head>, e.g., again using your example:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/06/xhtml2" xml:lang="nl-be">
<head>
  <!-- the following is meta data about the entire page -->
  <meta name="author">Jeroen Budts</meta>
  <!-- and the following only about the quote -->
  <meta id="AndyQuote">
    <meta name="author">Andy Warhol</meta>
    <meta name="DC.Language">en-us</meta>
    <meta name="DC.Title">THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol</meta>
    <meta name="chapter">4 - Beauty</meta>
    <meta name="page">71</meta>
  </meta>
</head>

<body>
  <p>
    Het volgende citaat vind ik best wel leuk:
    <blockquote xml:lang="en-us">
     <meta src="#AndyQuote" />
      The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's.
      The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald's.
      The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's.
      Pecking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet.
    </blockquote>
  </p>
</body>
</html>


Regards,

Tantek

Received on Thursday, 31 July 2003 18:22:46 UTC