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

Sat Sep 3 20:17:13 PDT 2005

S. Mike Dierken wrote:
>>Yes, but it still shouldn't be empty, how can you link to part of a page
> 
> that's nothing?
> You mean 'why' rather than how? I suppose if you had a system that allowed
> your boss to tell you "add a paragraph of blurbiage after paragraph 3 and
> before paragraph 4", how you you reference that point between existing
> elements?

Certainly not with an empty <a> element, that's for sure. In this HTML 
fragment:

| <body>
| <p>First paragraph...</p>
| <p>Second paragraph...</p>
| <p>Third paragraph...</p>
| <p>Fourth paragraph...</p>
| </body>

Some JS like this:

| var body = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
| var fourthParagraph = body.getElementsByTagName('p')[3];
|
| var newParagraph = document.createElement('p');
| newParagraph.appendChild(document.createTextNode('New paragraph'));
|
| body.insertBefore(newParagraph, fourthParagraph);

Would do exactly that.

-- 
Jasper Bryant-Greene
Freelance web developer
http://jasper.bryant-greene.name/