Re: HTML3 body tag

Dave Raggett (dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com)
Tue, 7 Mar 95 10:46:24 EST

> non-element SGML syntax, there is a perfectly good SGML
> mechanism -- external entities -- for handling just this
> kind of thing:

> <!ENTITY foobar SYSTEM "http://foo.com/bar.html.inc">

> &foobar;

Maybe.

> 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...">

> Murray

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.

> 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 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?

> 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 <dsr@w3.org> tel: +44 117 922 8046 fax: +44 117 922 8924
Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Filton Road, Bristol BS12 6QZ, United Kingdom