Malformed link?

[Doug Laidlaw]

This is probably something very obvious, but I just can't see it.

At http://www.douglaidlaw.net/boykett/timeline.html the last line should
contain a link, and the linking text should be an abbreviated version of
it. Instead, the full link is showing up as plain text and the link tags
are ignored.

What have I done wrong?

Doug.
--
Registered Linux User No. 277548. My true email address has hotkey for
myaccess.
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
- Albert Schweitzer.

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Doug Laidlaw <la******@myaccess.com.au> wrote:

This is probably something very obvious, but I just can't see it.

At http://www.douglaidlaw.net/boykett/timeline.html the last line should
contain a link, and the linking text should be an abbreviated version of
it. Instead, the full link is showing up as plain text and the link tags
are ignored.

It contains the following markup:

<a name="http://www.hyperhistory.com">
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html</a>

This does not define a link, only a potential destination anchor for a link.
You need to use the 'href' attribute instead of a 'name' attribute. Besides,
you probably wanted to have the URLs reversed:

<a href="http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html">
http://www.hyperhistory.com</a>

It's however usually a poor idea to use a URL as link text. Link texts are
meant to be readable as such, and it's the 'href' value that needs to be a
URL. Besides, it's misleading to use a URL different from the one in the
'href' attribute. I would suggest something like

<cite><a href="http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html">
HyperHistory</a></cite>

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Pages about Web authoring: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/www.html

[Doug Laidlaw]

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:

Doug Laidlaw <la******@myaccess.com.au> wrote:

This is probably something very obvious, but I just can't see it.

At http://www.douglaidlaw.net/boykett/timeline.html the last line should
contain a link, and the linking text should be an abbreviated version of
it. Instead, the full link is showing up as plain text and the link tags
are ignored.

It contains the following markup:

<a name="http://www.hyperhistory.com">
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html</a>

This does not define a link, only a potential destination anchor for a
link. You need to use the 'href' attribute instead of a 'name' attribute.
Besides, you probably wanted to have the URLs reversed:

<a href="http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html">
http://www.hyperhistory.com</a>

It's however usually a poor idea to use a URL as link text. Link texts are
meant to be readable as such, and it's the 'href' value that needs to be a
URL. Besides, it's misleading to use a URL different from the one in the
'href' attribute. I would suggest something like

<cite><a href="http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html">
HyperHistory</a></cite>

Thank you. All noted. Actually, I did think that the <a name=.. looked
unusual, but it was put there (I think) by Nvu. I edited the original
extensively, and thought that in the end, I had it right.

Doug.
--
Registered Linux User No. 277548. My true email address has hotkey for
myaccess.
The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.
- Michel de Montaigne.