[whatwg] Target Attribute Values

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On May 4, 2007, at 4:48 PM, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:

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

I think the kind of users who would benefit are also likely to know  
how to find the setting.

>> 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?

Yes. Figuring out what arbitrary code will do without executing it is  
mathematically proven to be impossible. You can make an approximation  
for a limited subset of cases, and I suppose if we wanted to we could  
copy the whole browser scripting environment and simulate execution,  
but that seems like an extreme solution to the problem.

>
>> [...] 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.

We already have quite a few link click modifiers taken, including Cmd- 
Opt-click. I'll make a feature suggestion to add something.

Regards,
Maciej