Shared item
1 shares
Google Doctype irony
via Nelson's Weblog by Nelson Minar on May 13, 2008
Google was very lucky to hire MarkPilgrim, web standards expert and cranky genius. Congratulationsto him on for the launch of Google Doctype, a websitethat documents fancy HTML, CSS, and DOM tricks that we all use. Thecurrent practice of rich webapps is way beyond the official standardsand it's good to see Google take some leadership in documenting howthings should work.
So it's a bit mind-boggling to me to find this bit of HTML on thefront page (URLs elded) that breaks the most basic element of the web;clicking on a link.
What's that? Well, it looks like a link to the actual importantcontent; "Browse Google Doctype". But because someone put an onlickhandler on it, it's not actually treated like a URL when you click onit. Instead, when you click on it the Javascript isexecuted to navigate you to the URL. Unfortunately, when youshift-click on it the Javascript also navigates you. Rather thandoing what the user would expect, open the link in a new window.I know, it's a little thing. But it's a horrible little thing, thekind of thing that so many "smart websites" do wrong and break the webstandard UI. My understanding of Google Doctype is that it's a wholeproject about helping developers avoid this kind of mistake.
Shared by: