Re: REL and REV attributes (Was: More comments on HTML 3.0)

Ian Graham (igraham@utirc.utoronto.ca)
Thu, 27 Apr 95 15:14:46 EDT

> > > >The problem is that ad-hoc RELs with no
> > > > semantics are what we have now -- and the result is that hardly
> > > > anyone uses REL.

Can we not agree on a small set of generic, useful, non- ad-hoc link
RELs? E.g" Next, Previous, Table of Contents, Index and maybe even
Author (although I am less fond of the latter, as I can see it leading
to lots of spurious e-mail message .... :-o )

These all seem pretty non-controversial, and obvious to implement.

Ian

> > >
> > > Another explanation: authors are not encouraged or taught to use it,
> > > as the browsers do not (reliably) show the REL of a link to another,
> > > even as an option (NoteCards browsers *did*, and everyone used them).
> >
> > I've been thinking about asking our developer to add Rel and Rev to
> > HoTMetaL PRO's ``Edit URL'' dialogue box, with pop-up menus of the most
> > common values read from a config file.
> >
> > However, I'm only aware of one browser that actually does anything with the
> > Rel and Rev tags, SCO's, so it seems pretty pointless to add a feature
> > to encourage people to waste their time adding them.... although, I also
> > think it's a catch-22 situation, and we need the golden swan to lay the
> > first chicken's egg. Or something.
>
> I wouldn't consider it "pretty pointless". :-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Murray
>