Re: Proposal: :column pseudo-class

> that might allow me to understand why linked HTML and XHTML anchors should 
> be without target attributes in their strict versions when those same markup 

Because target attributes result in compound documents that can only be
addressed by the sequence of link activations that are used to access 
them.  That means they are not truly part of the web because you 
cannot link to them.  Framesets are also not in strict HTML (they
are actually achieved by setting an entity and then invoking the
transitional DTD), so adding target back into strict HTML would also
result in accessibility problems, because it results in Windows 
suddenly popping into existence, and back buttons that lead to dead
ends.

> languages can drop documents into ladderless wells via object elements; I 
> have failed to see the wisdom in forcing otherwise strict documents to use a 

With objects, unless you use scripting, which can and is used to breach
all sorts of best practice policy limitations, the URL to the page 
guarantees that you get to the complete set of content that the
person supplying the link has reached.

The same would be true if browsers implemented link more intelligently and
automatically provided the content page for a detail page.

> transitional DTD just so it can validly use target attributes; I have failed 
> to see the wisdom in off-loading these very structural target attributes to 

In most cases, the use of target is behavioural, rather than structural.
The correct structural attribute to use would be rel or rev.

However, one of the things that W3 tries to protect in spite of a big
commercial demand to the contrary, is the ability to link to any 
resource on the web.  Whilst commercial developers often want people
to only access their home page, even though they want to have search
engines find the detail pages (last week I found a page on Google,
only to have the scripting on the page (office group policies keep
turning it back on) force me to the home page), W3C in its role of
the guardian of the web wants to encourage the ability to link to
everything on the web.

Received on Monday, 4 July 2005 06:26:46 UTC