[whatwg] Feeedback on <dfn>, <abbr>, and other elements related to cross-references

[Ian Hickson]

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008, Calogero Alex Baldacchino wrote:
> 
> Perhaps a silly idea: what if abbreviations could work as an img-map 
> couple? That is, i.e., an <abbr> without a title could avail of a, let's 
> say, 'ref' attribute indicating the id of a previous <abbr> element with 
> a title, and the former could be 'self-closing' (i.e. <abbr ref="#foo" 
> />), so by default the UA would substitute it with the referenced 
> element content (the unexpanded abbreviation), and, at the user will 
> (when he/she clics on the abbreviation, or just stops the pointer, or 
> navigates to the abbreviation, or according to any setting in the 
> browser options) the abbreviation is expanded. (I guess the above won't 
> be agreed because of backward compatibility, though)

What problem would this solve? It's not like including the abbreviation 
each time is a great burden.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'