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This is a horrible solution to the CSS history problem that's going to break a lot of layouts and a lot of javascript. A far better solution, IMHO, is to simpl

This is a horrible solution to the CSS history problem that's going to break a lot of layouts and a lot of javascript. A far better solution, IMHO, is to simply track both the origin page and destination page of clicked links, and only apply a:visited styles to links when the origin page is one that has been previously been used to visited the destination page. This is the solution employed by the SafeHistory plugin. (http://www.safehistory.com/ http://www.safehistory.com/)

raganwald 17y ago
So... Let's say that both proggit and hacker news have articles about plugging the CSS history leak. If I visit the link through proggit, the a:visited style is appled and I can see I've visited it. Now I go to HN to see what's new and I see a link to the same article. Will my browser make it look like I haven't visited it because I haven't visited it through HN? That would not please me as a user.
- snprbob86 17y ago
  I'd agree with you, but then I realized that I already switch browsers and computers so many times in a given day that I have this problem within a site, never mind spanning two. So I asked myself: When do I use the visited link colors for? And I think the answer is: only when I press the browser's Back button. I want to see where I left off clicking. If I have to click an extra link and say "Whoops, already saw that", then oh well. As long as I know where to start reading when I return.
  - Periodic 17y ago
    I use four different computers in a day, I'm often taking breaks to read HN or Reddit, visited styling isn't helping me much there. The place I use it most is for Google search results, particularly when I refine my search and I want to know what are the links I visited in my previous search so I can click only on the new ones. It's always a trade-off. I think this is a fairly reasonable one.
deleted 17y ago
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jeroen 17y ago
".. going to break a lot of layouts and a lot of javascript" I'd love to see an example, because I can't think of any myself.
- thorax 17y ago
  Any presentation layer change is going to break the look of lots of sites, given the huge quantity of sites. If you changed the font at all for a visited link, it will display differently across Mozilla browsers versus Chrome ones. Having not read about this, I'd never be able to figure out what was preventing the style from "taking" in normal development.
  - eli 17y ago
    Sure, but how could it "break" the layout? How could you possibly have a layout that requires links to change size to work?
eli 17y ago
I'm having a real hard time believing that. It seems like, at the very worst, a "broken" site will simply make your visited links appear identical as non-visited ones. Do people really have layouts that rely on visited links changing size or shape? What Javascript uses visited link styling to do something useful?

raganwald 17y ago

So... Let's say that both proggit and hacker news have articles about plugging the CSS history leak. If I visit the link through proggit, the a:visited style is appled and I can see I've visited it. Now I go to HN to see what's new and I see a link to the same article. Will my browser make it look like I haven't visited it because I haven't visited it through HN? That would not please me as a user.

snprbob86 17y ago
I'd agree with you, but then I realized that I already switch browsers and computers so many times in a given day that I have this problem within a site, never mind spanning two. So I asked myself: When do I use the visited link colors for? And I think the answer is: only when I press the browser's Back button. I want to see where I left off clicking. If I have to click an extra link and say "Whoops, already saw that", then oh well. As long as I know where to start reading when I return.
- Periodic 17y ago
  I use four different computers in a day, I'm often taking breaks to read HN or Reddit, visited styling isn't helping me much there. The place I use it most is for Google search results, particularly when I refine my search and I want to know what are the links I visited in my previous search so I can click only on the new ones. It's always a trade-off. I think this is a fairly reasonable one.

deleted 17y ago

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jeroen 17y ago

".. going to break a lot of layouts and a lot of javascript" I'd love to see an example, because I can't think of any myself.

thorax 17y ago
Any presentation layer change is going to break the look of lots of sites, given the huge quantity of sites. If you changed the font at all for a visited link, it will display differently across Mozilla browsers versus Chrome ones. Having not read about this, I'd never be able to figure out what was preventing the style from "taking" in normal development.
- eli 17y ago
  Sure, but how could it "break" the layout? How could you possibly have a layout that requires links to change size to work?

eli 17y ago

I'm having a real hard time believing that. It seems like, at the very worst, a "broken" site will simply make your visited links appear identical as non-visited ones. Do people really have layouts that rely on visited links changing size or shape? What Javascript uses visited link styling to do something useful?