ISSUE-118 (broken-link-types): Specification breaks semantics of existing link relations "index" and "first" [HTML 5 spec]

ISSUE-118 (broken-link-types): Specification breaks semantics of existing link relations "index" and "first" [HTML 5 spec]

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/118

Raised by: Julian Reschke
On product: HTML 5 spec

Some of the draft’s/the editor's proposed
re-definitions and re-canonicalizations  of some of the link types, will 'break
the Web' as they represent a break with how  these link relation keywords  are
generally implemented and/or specified. For a good overview over how existing
specs and implementations define or canonicalize link relations, see  Alexandre
Alapetite’s table. (Current link to his table:
http://alexandre.alapetite.fr/divers/vrac/20091115_HTML_link_rel.html)

Details:

]] 4.12.4.18.1 Link type "first"
The first keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. This keyword
creates a hyperlink.
The first keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that
the link is leading to the document that is the first logical document in the
sequence.
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keywords
"begin" and "start" like the first keyword. [[

Issue annotation: Summary: the problem is that 'start' is defined as synonym
for 'first.  'start' is today mainly treated as synonym for "start page/home
page". Start page is very common word for 'home page' in the non-English world.
Thus it should be treated as synonym for 'top' instead.

]] 4.12.4.17.1 Link type "index"
The index keyword may be used with link, a, and area elements. This keyword
creates a hyperlink.
The index keyword indicates that the document is part of a hierarchical
structure, and that the link is leading to the document that is the top of the
hierarchy. It conveys more information when used with the up keyword (q.v.).
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keywords
"top", "contents", and "toc" like the index keyword.[[

Issue annotation: 
0. Ian suggest to conflate many link types which are treated as different link
types in the wild. E.g Alexandre's table shows that most user agents/user agent
addons see 'top', 'index' and 'toc' as different things. Only 'toc' and
'contents' are often seen as same thing. What does Ian expect? That e.g. iCab
offers a much simpler links relations toolbar in order to treat these things as
synonyms?
1. 'User agents and use agent addons treats 'index' as  index page in the book
sense of the word (index in a book). Only Wordpress breaks that and uses Ian's
dumbed down (Apache's index.html pages) interpretation. (However, Wordpress
makes scarce use of link type - and the fewer link types one uses, then of
course, the more synonymous - in practically speaking - does those terms
become.)
2. Since the starting point is wrong, then it becomes meaningless to say that
'top'/'content'/'toc' should be considered synonyms of 'index'.


(raised for Leif Halvard Silli)

Related BugZilla bug: http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=7475

HTML5-SPEC-SECTIONS [link-type-index link-type-first]

Received on Thursday, 2 September 2010 14:30:46 UTC