RE: Problem with 'target-new' property and alternative suggestion

Anne van Kesteren wrote:
> 
> >> I guess you mean 'target-new' (and releated properties) can only be
> >> used when the element matches the ':link' or ':visited'
> >> pseudo-class? (Like AREA, LINK and A do in HTML 4.01.)
> >
> > Indeed. But the ':link' and ':visited' pseudo-classes are intended
> > for styling, and they are not link-specific. 'target-new' is not for
> > styling, and actually is link specific. I think it will mostly be
> > used in the style attributes of elements, instead of in stylesheets.
> > Therefore, I would not add the 'target-...' properties to CSS, but to
> > the XML technologies and elements on which these properties are most
> > meaningful (A, LINK, etc...).
> 
> How are ':link' and ':visited' not link specific?

I can use 'a, :link { color: Black; }' and all my links get black. There
might be reasons why I would want a specific link element or set of links to
be different, but that's where selectors are for. Generally, a style rule
specifies the layout of the selected element for the whole document, webpage
or website. All the same. That's the basic idea behind stylesheets, right?
Just to get rid of the repetitive work of '<font size="12" ...',
'color="#000000"' attributes on elements. But 'target-new' is a property
which would almost never be used for all links on a document, webpage or
website, or is it?

Anne van Kesteren also wrote:
> So you think a |target="_tab"| (and others) should be added to HTML?
> (Hixie! ;-))

Maybe not target="_tab" (annoying underscore!) but indeed, I think that such
attributes would be more valuable to HTML than to CSS.

Most CSS properties are meant to replace existing HTML attributes, such as
'color' and 'border', and the 'FONT' element. A website MUST still work
correctly without stylesheets (disabled, not supported, CSS3 not supported,
text browser, speech synthesizer) and when I replace the 'target' attribute
by the CSS' 'target-new', then non-CSS(3) browsing will make my site work
incorrectly (e.g. the 'open in new window' next to my external links will
not work!). I'd have to use BOTH! :(

Moving the link behaviour to a stylesheet doesn't make a webpage more
semantically correct, or does it?

Received on Monday, 13 September 2004 21:05:36 UTC