Re: HTML Link Type Model - where to standardize ?

Craig Hubley (craig@passport.ca)
Wed, 17 May 95 18:48:49 EDT

Yes, the WWW should define the 'link model', as this model must be
independent of any particular format, including HTML. Links that
don't preserve semantics across formats will splinter the web if
allowed to proliferate (i.e. I won't be able to jump reliably from a PDF
file to an HTML file to an SGML file).

However, HTML must support a full featured interface to this link model,
if it wants to remain as the pre-eminent format for presentation on
the Web. It seems to me that the HTML standard *must* define how its
<A ...> and <LINK ...> tags invoke a particular function defined by the
generic WWW model. It *may* choose to extend this model, at the (great)
risk that such extensions will not be adopted by other WWW formats, and
thus make it possible that certain links cannot be followed to certain
document formats. For certain kinds of applications this is not a
problem.

A truly - generic WWW link model probably has to be supported as first
class 'link type' URIs.

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