Posted by Greg N. on 12/28/05 12:28

Spartanicus wrote:

>>1. It's like each and every new element that was ever introduced in HTML
>>history.
>
> I illustrated why not. But since you decided to snip that I assume that
> you don't want to know.

Ok, then I did not understand. I think it's just like, say, the
<object> element. If the UA does not understand it, the corresponding
info will be missing in the rendered page. Where is the difference?
Please explain.

>>It would not break any UA in existence, it would only
>>(possibly) break pages that use it.
>
> It would result in existing UAs being incapable of dealing with sites
> that use such a feature.

Yes, it would result in an incomplete page being rendered. This has
happened many times when new HTML elements were introduced.

>>2. It could be implemented in a way that does not hurt old UAs, similar
>>to frame/noframe, script/noscript etc:
>>
>><include src...>
>><noinclude>
>>render this stuff here if include is not supported
>></noinclude>

> That wouldn't work. If the content of <noinclude> were the same as what
> is in the external resource then it would defeat the point of the
> <include> element.

Well, of course you'd have to use such a feature intelligently during
the introduction time, when not all UAs support it yet. You could do
things like that:

<include src=my-whiz-bang-navigation-menu.html>
<noinclude>
a simple, rudimentary navigation section
</noinclude>

or this:

<include src=current-number-of-cars-in-tukkatukkaland.html>
<noinclude>
Last time we counted, there were 123456 cars in tukkatukka land.
</noinclude>

> If it were to be a link to the external resource, for
> example a SE bot would index the resource. If, as it should be, the to
> be included resource is served as text/plain (since it's not an HTML
> document), SE's would link to orphaned code fragments that wouldn't be
> scanned for HTML constructs like links.
>
> Fundamentally broken, and thus unacceptable.

You did not convonvince me that UAs would be "fundamentally broken", now
you're telling me, SE bots will be fundamentally broken.

Sure SE bots need to learn new HTML elements as they develop. Are you
saying that's impossible? Was it ever a problem?

--
Gregor's Motorradreisen:
http://hothaus.de/greg-tour/

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