On Apr 28, 2007, at 2:04 AM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
On Apr 28, 2007, at 4:12 PM, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
...
One valid reason to use _blank instead of a named target to open a
new window is the fact that the top-level frame namespace is
global, and you don't want to collide with windows opened by other
web apps, or even other instances of your own web app.
...
Ever since I first visited two Web pages that accidentally opened
external links in the same window as each other, I've assumed that
the top-level frame namespace being global was a bug, with under-
specification of the target= attribute in HTML4 as a contributing
factor.
I suggest that WA1 specify that the frame namespace is per-top-
level-browsing-context, not global. (Even if it is global in all
extant browsers, I doubt that any applications rely on that
behavior.) Otherwise, what is a Web application developer supposed
to do to ensure that the application's help links reuse only its
own help window, and don't accidentally obliterate those of other
apps or even other open windows in the same app? Generate a per-
page UUID prefix for all its target= attribute values? :-)
In principle this sounds like a good idea. But I think there may well
be web apps that depend on top-level frame names being visible in all
windows, particularly "enterprise" apps which are generally only
deployed on intranets. It is worth doing some research to find out if
this is the case and determine the scope of the dependency. Perhaps
it could be limited to one top-level frame namespace for the set of
windows from a single domain.
Regards,
Maciej
