On 28 Feb 2008, at 12:18, Shannon wrote:
So 'backwards-compatibility', as defined by the same document, can be achieved by using javascript to walk the DOM and add 'window.location(node.getAttribute('link'))' to the onclick handler of any nodes with a link attribute. I have done a very similar thing before to implement :hover on non-anchor elements in IE. Of course an author wouldn't have to use this new attribute at all so backwards-compatibility is the designers choice, not an issue with the proposed attribute.
While yes, you could rely on something like that, it totally breaks in any user agent without scripting support. Nothing else, to my knowledge, in HTML 5 leads to total loss of functionality without JavaScript whatsoever. Nothing else reinvents the wheel for something with which we already have a perfectly fine solution already.
You mention in the first email in this thread that this would allow nested hyperlinks: altering the content model of the a element would allow this too. I don't see it as being a very sensible thing to allow, though.
-- Geoffrey Sneddon <http://gsnedders.com/>
