Dynamic HTML documents with client pull

Dan Connolly (connolly@w3.org)
Fri, 28 Apr 1995 20:06:19 +0500


Ulf Kronman writes:
>
> I had to take a look at the HTML source to find out what this was, and I
> found a new HTML directive looking something like this:
>
> <META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT="20; URL=http://[file name].au">
>
> I presume this tells Netscape to download the audio file 20 seconds after
> the page has been loaded.
>
> Is this nuicance going to be a part of the proposed HTML v 3.0 or is it a
> Netscape specific extension?

The META tag is HTML 2. Standard stuff. Used for several indexing
applications, as far as I know.

Sounds like they've chosen to interpret "http-equiv=refresh" to mean
that the client should go retrieve some stuff after a little
while. Hmmm... I thought http-equiv was intended for the server to
spit out HTTP headers when this document is served. This might be
different from the spirit of the spec, but it's not inconsistent,
technically.

In any case: the HTML spec is hardly relavent. This is an HTTP-related
innovation.

> This is AWFULL - this means that the time when *you* choose what you want
> so see on the web is gone! TV-style advertising is entering the Web!

So don't visit providers that use this feature.

Netscape has enabled a certain class of applications, but ultimately,
you still choose whether to participate in them or not.

As an information provider, you choose whether you want to rely on such
experimental features or not too.

Dan