[Whatwg] Request for HTML-only print link

[Sander]

Křištof Želechovski schreef:
>
> The acronym URL expands to "Uniform Resource **Locator**".  The string 
> "print:#" does not match this spec: it is not a locator, it is a 
> processing instruction.  BTW, the full form of the local URL "#" can 
> be viewed as "html:#" (whether it is allowed by the URL standard or 
> not) which means that you need a URL to access the resource you want 
> to print; prefixing it with "print:" would result in a double URL 
> scheme, which is unacceptable.  Therefore it is better to use a 
> special target, if any.
>
Would href="print://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/" have 
been better then?

> Moreover, as has already been noted, the http URL scheme does not 
> allow specifying document fragments except in CGI arguments, which is 
> an absolutely server-side unspecified thing.
>
Well, you can of course link to a specified id within a document 
(http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#media12). Isn't that 
a fragment, as in CSS (#media12 { })?

> And the details like paper sort, size, texture and stationery, print 
> mode and quality, the order of pages and many other things I do not 
> know about, if they are essential, still have to be explained verbally 
> to the viewer, so the gain is minimal.  And if you tell me such things 
> are never essential, I shall respond that printing is an obsolete 
> practice that is harmful to the environment and should be deprecated 
> and not recommended, except for the cases were a written signature is 
> needed, which is hopefully becoming obsolete as well.
>
These are essential for printing and should be handled the way it is 
handled now: through a print prompt. In a mailto:-link you don't provide 
from which address to send it from, HTML-mail, plain text or both either.

My request was for a way to have in-page print links that don't require 
client-side scripting, an HTML-alternative to javascript:print();

I don't agree with you that printing is an obsolete practice. Not yet at 
least, as people not all have mobile access to the internet or in cases 
like the example you came up with yourself.

cheers,
Sander


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