[whatwg] Target Attribute Values

[Sander Tekelenburg]

At 01:32 -0700 UTC, on 2007-05-04, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> On Apr 29, 2007, at 9:21 AM, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:

[...]

>> FWIW, iCab[*] indicateds such cases by a change of cursor [...]
>
> Safari indicates in the status bar hover feedback when a link will
> open in a new window, new frame or new tab, or if it will download,
> if we can tell based on target setting and the user's currently
> depressed modifier keys.

Ah, yes. I forgot. I quite like that behaviour. However, by default the
entire Status Bar isn't visible in Safari, so just how many users actually
benefit from this is the question ;)

> Unfortunately when the link action is JS we
> can only say that it will run a script. So it's actually better
> usability if the site can use target="_blank" compared to using
> window.open(), at least in Safari.

Sorry, I know very little of javascript. Are you saying it is technically
impossible for a UA to know beforehand what a script will do?

> [...] we don't have a set of modifiers to open in the current tab
> in the current window. I suppose that might be useful in some cases.

Definitely. iCab allows that through the contextual menu ("Link->Open in This
Window"). It might be faster if it can also be done with modifier keys.
Something along the lines of making Cmd-Opt-click to mean "open in same
window, no matter what". Assuming that doesn't conflict with existing
behaviour, of course.

In any case, for Safari especially, it will need to be self-explanatory, as
that's its killer-app-aspect. A non-indicated key combo wouldn't be
approriate. But an option in the contextial menu, indicating the alternative
key combo, probably would be.


-- 
Sander Tekelenburg
The Web Repair Initiative: <http://webrepair.org/>