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? :-)
--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
