Re: Displaying HEAD info

David - Morris (dwm@shell.portal.com)
Thu, 11 May 95 20:46:58 EDT

On Thu, 11 May 1995, Michael J Hannah wrote:

> But I think it SHOULD be viewable by the user, _IF_ they want to see it.
> If it is worth including, it is worth ensuring that the *human* can
> easily view it, in addition to the *browser*. The current standard
> does not _ensure_ that.

I'm opposed to the standard taking a position on this point. Enough
browsers support 'view source' to offer users an alternative. The
standard already has enough difficulty coming to closure on rendering
issues for the <body>. With all the proposals for additional material
in the <head> attempting to suggest how to display it to users adds
a dimension to each proposed addition we don't need to fuss about.

A user smart enough to understand the <head> can surely visually
parse to stop reading at the </head> tag. If not choose a browser
which supports an external viewer for the source which is then
a programmable editor ...

What next ? Show the http headers? Include a trace of the TCP/IP
traffic? Etc.

Dave Morris