[whatwg] [WA1] The a element could be empty

[Jim Ley]

On 9/3/05, Simon Pieters <zcorpan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> |If the a element has no href attribute, then the element is a placeholder
> |for where a link might otherwise have been placed, if it had been relevant.
> 
> Why must a placeholder have contents?

because a link requires contents.  There's no need for empty a
elements, they add nothing that an author cannot otherwise do.

> I merely want a blank <a/> to be allowed, if
> the href attribute is not set.

You've only provided one use case, and it's not a good use case, as
you can just as easily create the a element as have it in the source
in the first place, it's much better to do that.
 
> I don't want to hide it, I want it to be non existent when scripting is
> disabled or non-supported.

It's not non-existent though, it's there...
> >4) What prevents you from inserting the entire <a> element into a <span>?
> 
> It's more code, and an empty <a/> is IMHO equally harmful as an empty
> <span/>, so I can use the a element directly.

There's no need for an empty SPAN, you don't need any empty elements
at all, there is almost no more code (a createElement and appendChild
instead of a gEBI) and it's much neater, that's certainly not enough
of a difference to make a difference.
 
> |  <p>Sample code: <a id="sel"></a> <textarea>...</textarea></p>
> |  <script>
> |   var elm = document.getElementById("sel");
> |   elm.appendChild(document.createTextNode("select all"));
> |   elm.href = "javascript:selectall()";
> |   function selectall(){...}
> |  </script>

No, please stop suggesting href="javascript:   this shows you're
scripting experience is quite limited, the above fails in a number of
browsers simply because the href: will result in a navigation, even if
a null navigation which will unselect the text anyway.   The total
length of the code withotut the a in the source is also shorter, so
this is not a use case.

Jim.