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Bug 17174 - Global href and src
Summary: Global href and src
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: Other other
: P3 enhancement
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Edward O'Connor
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/...
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-05-25 00:55 UTC by contributor
Modified: 2013-02-07 18:19 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description contributor 2012-05-25 00:55:58 UTC
Specification: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/single-page.html
Multipage: http://www.whatwg.org/C#top
Complete: http://www.whatwg.org/c#top

Comment:
I loved the idea in XHTML2 of the (nearly) global href and src attributes
across all elements. This would have greatly simplified HTML coding, offered
considerably more meaning and flexibility than attributes like alt and
longdesc do, and connected semantic elements with content in a more direct
way. I hereby request that these elements be brought into HTML5. Thank you.

Posted from: 70.66.89.121
User agent: Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; U; en) Presto/2.10.229 Version/11.64
Comment 1 contributor 2012-07-18 07:22:01 UTC
This bug was cloned to create bug 17948 as part of operation convergence.
Comment 2 Robin Berjon 2013-01-21 16:00:26 UTC
Mass move to "HTML WG"
Comment 3 Robin Berjon 2013-01-21 16:03:10 UTC
Mass move to "HTML WG"
Comment 4 Edward O'Connor 2013-02-07 18:19:08 UTC
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are
satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If
you have additional information and would like the Editor to reconsider, please
reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML
Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest
title and text for the Tracker Issue; or you may create a Tracker Issue
yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:

   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: No spec change.
Rationale: This has been proposed many times in the past, and has been
rejected for several reasons. The "HTML should support href on any
element" entry of the WHATWG FAQ captures several of the known issues
with such a feature:

http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#HTML_should_support_href_on_any_element.21

Some additional history on this issue from as far back as 2006 that I
could find:

http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-January/005407.html
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2006-August/007179.html
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2008-July/015482.html

This has also come up on public-html several times, though I found it more
difficult to locate specific threads. Though about src="" and not href="",
you may find this thread illuminating:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2007JanMar/0678.html