[whatwg] href synonyms?

[Ian Hickson]

On Thu, 9 Dec 2010, Roger Hågensen wrote:
>
> This has irked me lately...
> 
>    * <a> uses /href/ (outbound)
>    * <link> uses /href/ (inbound and outbound)
>    * <img> uses /src/ (inbound)
>    * <iframe> uses /src/ (inbound)
>    * <script> uses /src/ (inbound)
>    * <embed> uses /src/ (inbound)
>    * <object> uses /data/ (inbound)
>    * <applet> uses /code/ (inbound)
>    *   css @import (inbound)
>    * I'm sure I missed some more that should be listed here too.
> 
> It seems like in all cases these are simply a URI, and whether it takes 
> you to some place or if it loads in something is purely contextual. So 
> why not spec all those to simply be synonyms for href (which is used 
> both for inbound and outbound).

Because that would add extra complexity to browsers and the spec without 
really simplifying the language much (since authors would still have to 
know about the synonyms to be able to edit older pages or pages written by 
other people).

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