- From: Michael Day <mikeday@yeslogic.com>
- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 17:27:49 +1100 (EST)
- To: www-html@w3.org
a | abbr | acronym A story of three tags. In the time of XHTML 2, when backwards compatibility was thrown to the winds in the name of future coolness, the humble <a> tag -- which was once the very heart of the web -- was lying useless and forlorn: "Every element can be a link! Every element can be an anchor! There is no longer any purpose in my life, and the ongoing struggle between the kingdoms of XLink, HLink, SkunkLink (and Vellum) shows no sign of adding meaning to my existence in the future." Nearby, <abbr> and <acronym> continued their years long bickering, trying to settle once and for all how NASA should be marked up, whether SOAP stood for anything, what W3C was supposed to be, and whether being supported by Internet Explorer or being supported by Mozilla gave you more markup credibility. Presently a wandering monk, hearing their argument, pointed out that they were both completely irrelevant. "I never use semantic markup due to the excessive strain on my fragile wrists. If I had to type <abbr>XML</abbr> or heaven forbid, <acronym>XML</acronym> every time I wanted to refer to that-which-is-hierarchical, I would soon be reduced to a state of carpal decrepitude, not to mention gibbering insanity." At this, <abbr> and <acronym> fell silent, but <a> was filled with a wild hope. Surely people would not object to typing <a>XML</a>? That would be a saving of many characters, encouraging more users to correctly mark up their abbreviations and acronyms (both of which fortunately start with the letter "a"). Not only that, but it would be a noble purpose for the lonely <a> tag, allowing it to raise its head once more and bask in the glory of <a title="XML HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</a> 2. Upon which <abbr> and <acronym>, overhearing its ambitions, ate <a> for breakfast. --- Michael
Received on Monday, 3 March 2003 01:48:15 UTC