Re: METHODS and TITLE

Murray Maloney (murray@sco.COM)
Tue, 20 Jun 95 15:19:44 EDT

Daniel Wood - FES OPS ~ writes:
>
> > > 2. In internal releases of Mosaic for Windows 2.0b5, we've added an
> > > attribute to A called SUBJECT, which would be used with mailto: URLs for
> > > just what you think it would be. It seems to me, though, that TITLE might
> > > be suitable for use for this. Opinions on this?
> > >
> > > If there are strong negative feelings about the use of TITLE for this, how
> > > do people feel about a SUBJECT attribute?
> >
> > I think that this would be a very good use for the TITLE attribute.
>
> This would conflict with the original meaning of TITLE, no? Unless
> the subject of mailto URLs is defined to be the same as whatever text
> you wish displayed to the user by the browser. (Which is inelegant.)
>
First, let me clarify to make sure we're all talking about
the same thing -- the TITLE attribute on the A and LINK elements.
Not the <TITLE> element which is displayed by most user agents.

The TITLE attribute is not displayed by any user agents that
I am aware of -- although I confess that I only use three or four.
SCO is planning to use the TITLE attribute value to display
it in the information area where the URL of a pointed-to anchor
is currently displayed.

For an anchor with a mailto: URL, there is not much use for
a TITLE attribute except, perhaps, to say "Send mail to ...."
Like others, I have commented recently that it would be
handy if the user agent would fill in the subject on a mailto:
so that I wouldn't have to -- not in all cases, but in some.

It may be a bit inelegant to overload the TITLE attribute,
but it is equally inelegant to introduce a SUBJECT attribute
which is only used whene the URL scheme is mailto:

Murray