[whatwg] <A> Element & Attributes

[Eugene T.S. Wong]

If I understand W3C correctly, they intend to give designers and  
developers the ability to make anything clickable. Should we allow  
all/most things to be clickable by default? If we get rid of <A> and just  
place the attributes in the containing element or a span element, then we  
might produce better code. For example:

<MENU>
<LI HREF="/">Home</LI>
<LI HREF="sitemap">Site Map</LI>
<LI>Catalog</LI>
<LI HREF="contact">Contact Information</LI>
</MENU>

In the above example, 3 out of 4 items would be clickable, and the code  
implies that the user is viewing the catalog right now, and that that item  
is not clickable at this time.

I noticed from the list of phrase elements, that there are not many 1  
letter element names. If we get rid of <A>, then that means we'd be using  
longer names, like <SPAN>. Maybe we should keep <A>, but still make the  
others clickable. The benefit of that is for when we use enclose inline  
text that is surrounded by other inline text. For example:

<P>Foo <A HREF="asdf">bar</A> biz baz.</P>

Comments? Questions?

-- 
Sincerely, and with thanks,
Eugene T.S. Wong