[thelist] target="_new" and xhtml 1.0

[Erika Meyer]

Interestingly, a similar discussion took place on webstandards at 
about the same time... regarding HTML4 strict & target... and of 
course, as has been pointed out, XHTML is essentially HTML4 with a 
few adjustments...

Here is a quote excerpted from an email sent to that list (authored 
by Dane Weber) which explained the "target" issue for me:

<Dane Weber quote>
You'll need to use Javascript. There is absolutely no structural meaning to
'target' except that you really don't want anyone following that link away
from your site. All windows are a user-agent issue.
</quote>

While I like the simplicity of the "target" attribute, and (unlike 
others) I do not think new windows are necessarily a deadly sin....

but it makes sense to say that browser windows don't have structural 
meaning and should be dealt with via scripting or something other 
than HTML.

Erika


>aardvark wrote:
>  > >  Sorry about that last partial post. As Erika recommended,
>  > you need to
>  > > use the "loose" dtd, as required by the HTML 4 spec
>  > > (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/index/attributes.html).
>  >
>  > except he's using XHTML, not HTML... so a loose DTD for XHTML i
>  > think is what everyone means...
>
>	Well, yes, mostly. You were right to clarify what I said. I pointed
>to the html 4 spec because, unless you sift through the actual xhtml
>transitional dtd (which can be a bit confusing), the xhtml spec itself
>doesn't say boo about the target attribute. Since, aside from the
>stylistic/construction restrictions of xhtml, the xhtml spec preserves 99.9%
>of the html 4.x spec, referring to the html 4 spec is often the easiest way
>to know whether a particular element or attribute is part of the strict dtd,
>has been deprecated, etc., etc.
>	For those who feel comfortable reading the actual xhtml dtds,
>obviously that is the most direct way to know whether one of them supports a
>particular element or attribute. For those who don't read dtds, referring to
>the html 4 spec will steer you right very nearly every time. (Of course, a
>quick check of the xhtml spec for the few exceptions is recommended, too! :)
>
>James Aylard
>jaylard at equilon.com

erika at seastorm.com
http://www.seastorm.com