[whatwg] iframes with potential for independent navigation controls

[Brett Zamir]

  I would like to see attributes be added to allow iframes to have 
independent navigation controls, or rather, to allow a parent document 
to have ongoing access to the navigation history of its iframes (say to 
be informed of changes to their histories via an event) so that it could 
create such controls?  I would think that the average user might suspect 
that their clicks would not necessarily be private if they were already 
in the context of another site, but if privacy would be of concern here 
(or security, though GET requests alone shouldn't alone be able to give 
access to sensitive data), maybe the user could be asked for permission, 
as with Geolocation.

This really has I think wonderful potential.

Especially but not exclusively for larger screens, one can envision, for 
example, a site which displays content in a table, with paragraphs being 
in one column, and commentary in another.

If the commentary column uses say a wiki (or a comment feed/discussion 
thread), to keep track of resources and cross-references, insights, 
errata, etc. pertaining to a given paragraph or verse (e.g., for books, 
but also potentially for blog articles, etc.--anywhere people may wish 
to dissect in context), it would be desirable for one to be able to say 
edit content in one fixed iframe pane, follow links in another one 
(including to other domains), etc., all while keeping the original 
context of the table of content and iframes on screen, and allowing the 
user to go backward and forward in any pane independently (or possibly 
type in a URL bar for each iframe). One can even imagine ongoing chat 
discussions taking place within such a mosaic.

best wishes,
Brett