Displaying HEAD info [was REL/REV/links]

Michael J Hannah (mjhanna@sandia.gov)
Thu, 11 May 95 11:19:28 EDT

The discussion on REL/REV/links seems to be focused on providing
for automatic behavior for browsers based on these relationships.
I would like to at least crawl before we get lost in marathon training.

Why can't the current 2.0, or at least 3.0, require that a browser be
able to display to the user all information from the beginning of the
file to the first BODY element? (Beginning of file so I can observe
such SGML tags as doctype). I do not propose specifying how this
is displayed, or what value-added a given browser might add to the
presentation of this information (such as arming all encountered UR?s
like many already do in news messages with their embedded news readers).

I just want to ensure that the standard specifies that the user has easy
access to this otherwise undisplayed information. While the discussion
(and implementations) evolve on automated behavior, presenting this
information to the user allows manual actions while we wait for
automated actions.

Implementation could be no more difficult than the current ability to
display source, just stop the display when </HEAD>, or <BODY>, or the
first BODY element was encountered.

Can't we at least put this in the standard(s)?

Michael