[wp-hackers] XHTML Strict compliant replacement for target=_new

[Andy Skelton]

On 10/21/05, Jason Bainbridge <jbainbridge at gmail.com> wrote:
> Firstly I think the whole target=_new thing is a pain to begin with,
> if I want to open a link in a new window I'll middle click on it thank
> you very much and if the damned link uses Javascript and the middle
> click fails then more often then not I just won't follow the link.

Yes. If some blogger self-importantly presumes to make his external
links prevent *my* browser from leaving his site, I most certainly
WILL leave his site. I will thereafter lean away from that blogger's
sites, writings, comments and opinions in the future. It's just a bad
idea of the same ilk as trying to prevent people from viewing your
source by cancelling right clicks. Counsel against it.

Furthermore, the fact that you /can/ dynamically add a target
attribute to a an XHTML page in contemporary browsers does not make it
good, proper, standard or strict. Sure, there aren't any "validators"
that will complain because the XHTML looks good. However, to maintain
the idea of "strict" it is not merely the XHTML that should be valid;
it is the entire document, even while dynamic DOM manipulation occurs.
This should play out in the near future when browsers begin to treat
XHTML Strict pages /strictly/ and ignoring (or even complaining about)
invalid dynamic manipulation of the DOM. That means making JS
interpreters play by the rules, too.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Andy