A BACKUP HTML tag

Dirk Herr-Hoyman (hoymand@gate.net)
Mon, 24 Apr 95 11:49:54 EDT

I would like to propose a new HTML tag that addresses a user interface
problem I am seeing. I would like to see <BACKUP> (or the moral
equivalent) be used to display a link that causes a Web browser to backup
to the last visited page.

We have all seen the Web pages with the inevitable "Click here to
return...". More sophisticated interfaces will even provide a button with
a link that is generated from a CGI script. The problem with all of these
is that it works at cross purposes with the browser's own local "BACKUP"
command. If you use this Web links for a while and then try to "BACKUP"
with your browser's command, you go thru a whole different history then you
might expect. Very unintuitive.

This tag could mirror parts of the <IMG> tag, the SRC and ALT elements
being used to set how <BACKUP> is rendered. But, unlike <IMG>, it need not
have a SRC element, in which case some browser default it used. For
non-interactive uses (like printing), <BACKUP> might be ignored.

I don't see many tags that specfically address local browser functions. In
principle, the style sheet stuff could do this, I suppose. But, this seems
like a simple addition that HTML authors would quickly latch onto, if it
were available. While I dislike adding things like this in, I also see
this as a very useful feature that was needed yesterday.

Comments?

--
Dirk Herr-Hoyman <hoymand@gate.net> |          I tried to contain myself
CyberBeach Publishing               |                                but
   * Internet publishing services   |                          I got out
Lake Worth, Florida, USA            |
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