[whatwg] Image maps: should we drop <a coords="">?

[fantasai]

Ian Hickson wrote:
> Client-side with <a> (doesn't work in WinIE6, works in Moz, Opera):
> 
>    <img usemap="#foo"> (or <object usemap="#foo"></object>)
>    <map id="foo">
>     ...
>     <a coords="..." ...></a>
>    </map>
> 
> I couldn't find any uses of <a coords="">. (Data based 
> on a sample of over 600,000 randomly chosen sites.)

I'd guess that's because of the WinIE6 holdup. Hardly anyone designs
a site that won't work in WinIE6.

> I propose we drop <a coords=""> from HTML5. While it is definitely a 
> better design than <area>, it isn't a substantially better design, and 
> having both is confusing. Since here we have a case where one of the 
> options is rarely used (if at all), I believe we can take the opportunity 
> to prune the spec without ill effect. (In contrast, in the <button> vs 
> <input type="submit"> case, we couldn't drop either because they were 
> both heavily used.)
 >
> Anyone want us to keep <a coords="">?

If Moz and Opera support it, then it already passes CR criteria.
Besides, you shouldn't be obsoleting things without letting them go through
the deprecation stage. No?

~fantasai