Re: backward compatibility for links

Roy T. Fielding (fielding@avron.ICS.UCI.EDU)
Sat, 20 May 95 02:09:52 EDT

Larry writes:

> 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>

That is unnecessary if the browser is capable of rendering links
in a different UI style based on element nesting. You can just have

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

and, with the proper definition of MENUBAR, it would have the desired
effect for new and legacy browsers. I'd prefer BANNER to have those
semantics, but I know some people have other uses for it.

....Roy T. Fielding Department of ICS, University of California, Irvine USA
<fielding@ics.uci.edu>
<URL:http://www.ics.uci.edu/dir/grad/Software/fielding>