>> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Andrew Ballard <aballard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> > This also has the side effect that the decision of whether to open a >> > link in the current window or a new window/tab belongs to the viewer >> > instead of the author, which some argue is exactly as it should be. >> > >> > Andrew On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 4:49 PM, Ashley Sheridan <ash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > There are still valid reasons to use it. On my own site for example, and > links which lead outside of my site open up in a new tab/window. I link > to a lot of other external sites often in my blog entries, and I think > it's valid that these links open up in new tabs/windows so that my site > is left open when they read the rest of the article. > > I guess I could add some form of indication that the link will open up > in a new window though. > > Thanks, > Ash > http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk Obviously it is up to you as the site author, but then that was part of the point I was trying to make above. Authors frequently make links to "external" material open in a new window because they don't want the user to navigate away from their own site. However, there are many who would argue that the target of a link is a decision that belongs to the viewer. In most browsers, one has the choice with any regular link to either click it and open it in the same window/frame as the referring document, or open the context menu (right-click, etc.) for the link and open it in a new tab/window. If the site author specifies target="_blank", the author has removed one of those options from the viewer. I get annoyed by sites that use href="javascript:window.open('someurl')" specifically because it prevents me from choosing to open the link in a new tab. Besides, as Adam said, more and more web browsing is being done on mobile devices and other platforms that don't support multiple "windows". In these environments, the idea of a link target no longer has meaning. For what it's worth, here is a sample page that shows one way to address the OP's question of duplicating the functionality of "target" on links while still being valid XHTML. And yeah ... I know someone will blast me for how much code it took to duplicate a simple target="_blank" attribute. :-) I didn't test it extensively (just tried it in Firefox and IE7) but I believe it degrades pretty well, it simulates target pretty closely, and it validates. http://pastebin.com/Q3MrWBKi Andrew -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
