[Docutils-develop] Re: "title" attributes for hyperlink references

[Felix W. <Fel...@gm...>]

Beni Cherniavksy wrote:

> David Goodger wrote:
>
>> We have a user request for the addition of descriptive information on
>> hyperlink references, which will turn into "title" attributes on HTML
>> "a" tags.  How do we handle this request?  Here are the alternatives
>> so far:
>> 
>> 1. We make no change: reST can't handle descriptions on references.
>> 
>> 2. Implement options on explicit targets:
>> 
>>        .. _Python: http://www.python.org
>>           :description: The official Python Language Site
>> 
>> 3. Implement a new directive:
>> 
>>        .. target:: http://www.python.org
>>           :name: Python
>>           :description: The official Python Language Site
>> 
>>    If no "name" option, the target is anonymous.
>> 
>> #1 is the easiest, but sucks from a user-responsiveness point of view.
>> #2 requires new, unprecedented syntax; I vote -1 on this.
>> #3 is relatively straightforward.
>
> #3 is IMHO evil because it will be looked up according to its `:name:` 
> option.

Yes, I don't like it very much either.  And I think adding a directive
just for such a small feature, and thereby duplicating the
functionality of the existing target syntax, is overkill.

> For that reason at least, I strongly prefer #2 over #3.

Well, David doesn't like it because it adds new syntax, and I trust
his taste on syntax design.

While #1 indeed means that we don't get the feature, I'd still prefer
it over #2 and #3.  We don't have to add every requested feature, and
I think especially in this case we should resist the feature creep.

FWIW, it can still be implemented as an extension to Docutils.

-- 
Felix Wiemann -- http://www.ososo.de/