Re: Some HTML 3.0 suggestions

Mike Piff (M.Piff@sheffield.ac.uk)
Fri, 28 Oct 1994 14:16:37

%%>>Is this serious? Are <FOOTNOTE> and <MARGIN> *really* proposed for HTML?
%%>>What are all those hyperlinks for then?
%%>
%%><FOOTNOTE> and <MARGIN> are part of the HTML+ spec, and are actually pretty
%%>nifty. All the HTML inside the footnote or margin note gets stashed away by
%%>the browser and a footnote marker (e.g. [*]) that looks like an anchor put in
%%>its place. When the user clicks on the footnote marker, the contents of the
%%>footnote or margin note get displayed in a pop-up window.
%%>
%%>I've got these working just fine, and it's pretty cool. Saves having links to
%%>all those tiny files, and allows the note to be viewed at the same time as the
%%>context to which it applies.
%%>

Ah! The difference is in the simultaneous visibility of the surrounding
context---whether the browser overlays the current window entirely or
partially. An interesting question suggests itself here about whether
the hyperlink should always lead to a new, resizable, window, but that is
a browser issue, surely.

Anyway, hyperlinks don't normally *have* to point to a separate file, do
they? I was sure branches to labels were allowed. However, that is a
different issue. The feature I have seen in Guide that would satisfy
both footnote and marginal note users is that of optionally hidden text.
Click on the link and the text merges into the current document.

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%% Dr M J Piff, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of %%
%% Sheffield, UK. +44 114 282 4431 e-mail: M.Piff@sheffield.ac.uk %%
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