backward compatibility for links

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Fri, 19 May 95 14:45:02 EDT

Forgive me for injecting a random idea into the discussion but...

I woke up this morning thinking we needed a backward compatibility
method for allowing the handling of links. The idea is to add a new
tag whose meaning is: if you support automatic inclusion of this kind
of link in the menu bar for your browser application, then this is the
URL for that link; if you don't, include the included text. I'll call
this 'XXLINK' for a moment:

<XXLINK HREF="xxxxx" REL="next">

<A HREF="xxxxx">
<IMG SRC="button">
</A>
Next Page
</XXLINK>

Browsers that don't recognize XXLINK will just present the
navigational button as it was. Those that do recognize it can elide
the entire button and explanatory text.

<XXLINK REL="next">

..

</XXLINK>

could be used around segments that should be totally elided if the
browser supported the link types.

Even browsers that didn't support navigational buttons in a menu bar
might want to elide the sections marked with XXLINK when printing.