[whatwg] Re: Seperation of Content and Interface

[Malcolm Rowe]

Matthew Raymond writes:
>    Whereas you'd have them forced to have two navigation bars, one in the 
> web page, and one as part of the browser that doesn't even work because 
> the web page doesn't have any relevant <link> elements.

Apropos of nothing, ISTR that jwz filed a bugzilla bug asking for some way 
to determine whether a given UA supported (and was currently configured to 
display) the <link> element, so that it would be possible to determine when 
a browser-based navigation bar was being displayed, and hence hide the 
'legacy' HTML navigation bar. I believe that Media Queries were suggested as 
the appropriate mechanism. 

mpt is right, though: If *most* UAs 'supported' (by which I also mean 'and 
displayed, at least by default') a navigation bar based on the <link> 
element, then authors would rely on the behaviour, and would use <link>. 

Since most UAs do not support <link>, and since authors have no easy way to 
determine whether a given user has a visible navigation bar, there is 
actually a slight dis-incentive for authors to include <link> elements, for 
precisely the reason that you give (and similarly, a slight dis-incentive 
for browser implementors to support it). 

Regards,
Malcolm