Re: HTML3 body tag

Murray Maloney ([email protected])
Tue, 7 Mar 1995 11:40:14 +0500


> > 2) A more viable solution might be to introduce an <INCLUDE> element.
>
> > <DL> ....
> > <DT> foobar
> > <DD> <INCLUDE ID=foobar NAME="foobar" HREF="http://foo.com/bar.html.inc"
> > REL="subdoc" REV="glossary"
> > TITLE="The definition of foobar is...">
>
> OK, but we would have to use <!ELEMENT BODY O O (%body.content) +(INCLUDE)>
> to ensure that the INCLUDE element can be placed at any point in an
> HTML document body.

Well, either that, or we determine that <INCLUDE> may only contain
elements above the text level. That is, <INCLUDE> might only
be allowed to contain block- and division-level containers.
Just a thought.
>
> > P.S. Looking at the HTML 3.0 spec, I am surprised to see the REV
> > attribute missing from both <A> and <LINK>. Why is that?
>
> Do we really need REV and METHOD ?

I can't speak for METHOD at the moment, but REV is certainly needed.

Putting aside the list of REL/REV values that is currently suggested,
The following example is an example which illustrates how REL and REV
can be used together to advantage, with one value describing a
directional cue and the other describing a relationship:

<LINK REL=prev REV=sibling TITLE="My sibling" HREF="...">
<LINK REL=next REV=parent TITLE="My first child" HREF="...">

It also occurs to me that it should be possible to attach
one to many link semantics to a document. That is, it should
be possible for REL="next" to be used in combination with
multiple REV="value"s. So, if I am browsing through chapters
of a book -- that is my application -- I could "next" from
the top of one chapter to the top of the next, and so on.
However, at some point I may want to step through the book
(or a specific chapter) linearly.

There is a lot of potential power available through the use
of the <LINK> element, especially with a good set of REL/REV
values. I'd be happy to say more about this when I have a
bit of time to write something up.
>
> I also left out URN, feeling that none of these attributes have seen
> widespread useage over the last few years, so perhaps they are just
> cluttering up the standard for little real benefit.
>
> (They are still in the DTD - so I need to get the explanation
> and DTD into sync again).
>
> Comments please.
>
> > I'm glad to see a list of values for REL, but I wonder why
> > each begins with a leading capital letter. Since case is
> > significant for these attribute values, according to the DTD,
> > I would suggest that lower-case values be used. In fact, I wonder
> > whether we need to discuss that as a design principle.
>
> As they are SGML NAMES, aren't they case insensitve?

My mistake.
>
> > Hmmm! Come to think of it, I don't think that we (HTML WG)
> > have any articulated and documented design principles.
>
> I have tried to do this and welcome suggestions for improvements.
>
> -- Dave Raggett <[email protected]> tel: +44 117 922 8046 fax: +44 117 922 8924
> Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Filton Road, Bristol BS12 6QZ, United Kingdom