Hi, I accept your view as valid. But there's not a clear line in this respect between a button and a link IMO: I, as a user, see the "Options" link on the discussion page as a link that navigates me to a new page (or modified version of the page if you will), where the Options are unfolded. As long as I don't dig into the underlying technology (Does it retrieve a new page from the server? As a user I shouldn't have to worry about this - the same is true for HTML/CSS authors!), then there's no difference.
So, a generalized definition for a link would be, that it's some text/ image/... that performs some action with the page when clicked on. It links a representation to an action. A button is a variation of this - displayed as a more prominent "inline replaced element". It is usually associated by users with the meaning, that it performs some data change (in HTTP this would be POST/PUT), instead of just a data retrieval (GET). I would really see this from a document usability standpoint - which is, what HTML is about. Users distinguish certain aspects of a document, and HTML marks that up. A h1 for a heading (not a div!), a table for a table (should actually not be used for layout!), a link for a link, and a button for a button. The easiest way to believe this, is to view a HTML page without a CSS. If you use a div, users will never get the idea, that they can click that thing. Chris On Mar 5, 12:30 am, Thomas Broyer <[email protected]> wrote: > On 4 mar, 17:40, Chris Lercher <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi Thomas, > > > according to Mariyan's description, the words should be embedded in > > the text, so I assume, that they should look like links (color, > > underline) and feel like links (mousepointer, ...) I would find it a > > little bit odd to use spans, only to redecorate them using CSS to make > > them look like hyperlinks. From the user's perspective, they should > > work like hyperlinks - the use case basically doesn't change, if the > > action is executed by a request to the server side or not. (Also, > > there have always been in-page links "#...", so not every link has to > > create a request to the server.) > > By definition, a link triggers "navigation" (to another page or > another place inside the same page). If your "link" points to "#" (as > the "Options" in Google Groups) or "javascript:" or > "javascript:void(0)", then it's not a link, just a button that looks > like a link (much like the "Report spam", "Reply", "Edit Subject" etc. > on Google Groups: the action is not "go to X", so it's a "action > button", not a link). > > > Of course, it's also ok to use spans, actually they can be used for > > everything in an HTML page, as long as CSS is enabled, so... raises > > the question what HTML is good for anyway. > > You could also use <b> or <mark> instead of <span>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
