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(Initial) discussion: http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2013-May/039491.html PROBLEM: * The meaning of an empty citation link, is unclear. * It also seems to have no use case. PROPOSAL: * Require non-empty URL for @cite attribute (of q, blockquote, ins, or del) * Let empty @cite (like empty @src) be without effect * Alternatively: Define clearly what the meaning of an empty @cite is and how it should be handled. JUSTIFICTION: * There is now a presedence for how HTML handles empty @src * There seems to be no use case for empty @cite. * For a use, or script, to follow an empty citation link, would only be confusing.
Btw, if possible, @cite and @longdesc ought to work the same way in these details. Thus let me mention that for longdesc then: * implementations ignore @longdesc when empty. [1] * proposal is that @longdesc spec blesses that behavior [1] [1] https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21778
longdesc="" is ignored by UAs per the spec. cite="" with empty value is treated as a link to the current document. This is already specced.
OK. So it seems that @cite and @longdesc (in its new spec) separate from each others when it comes to whether the attribute can be empty.