Re: new standarts, target=blank

> Jeez - replacing target with a bunch of javascript sounds totally silly if
> you ask me. Are we sure it's not something that will come back in the
> next specs, so we can safely ignore it (or provide it as fall-back) in the
> few places where having an external window makes sense ?

The w3c mentality on this is that it's not up to the mark-up or style to
alter the browser windows themselves, that's what client side scripting is
for. It really doesn't look like it's coming back to the specs at any point
in the near future.

However, what the article presents as the solution isn't the right thing to
do. He's using javascript to write the target attribute - still using it,
just hiding it from the w3c validation service. Prefered is either <script>
and <noscript> to wrap the link in an accessable way (new window in the
<script> and normal link in the <noscript>) or something like <a
href="somewhere.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">Go
somewhere</a> which was suggested in the SitePoint forums.

Personally I'd say just get rid of them. The fact that many sites have taken
to opening external links in new windows doesn't mean this is the best thing
for the user experience.