Replaceable element for parameterising pages (was: Proposal for small enhancement)

Sorin Schwimmer wrote:

First point, when choosing a subject try to summarise the proposal.

> 
> So, here is my suggestion: lets add a tag in one of the following forms:
> <r id=ID/>
> <r src=URL/>
> "r" stands from "replace", and the idea is to use a substitution in the text the same way #define does it in C.

This capability has always existed in HTML, as specified (probably 
dropped in HTML5).  However, browser developers have never considered it 
worth implementing.

Most web pages actually make use of the capability, e.g. when they write 
&nbsp; they really asking for the browser to substitute the definition 
of nbsp, which is, I believe, actually &#xa0;.  In practice, though the 
browsers have things like &nbsp; hard coded, rather than parsing the 
list of definitions at run time, and most do not have the code to 
support that parsing.

Your second case is handled by redirection.  If I remember correctly, an 
entity can be defined to be external.  Again, normal browsers don't have 
the code to support this.

Also, I don't think you can use the id attribute, as you may want to 
substitute the same text in multiple places, and id uniquely identifies 
the element in which it occurs.  (You make the common mistake of 
referring to elements as tags.)
-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.

Received on Friday, 5 December 2008 12:23:34 UTC