> 
> 
> Has there been any talk of adding a @show attribute, similar to the one 
> defined by XLink[1] (maybe only with "new" and "replace" as accepted 

That sound behavioural, and therefore inappropriate for HTML.  I'm not
sure if rel and rev are still in XHTML 2.0, but it seems to me that these
existing attributes should be able to encode the necessary information,
although one might then need a style/behaviour sheet to specify which
relationships are close enough to justify replace (noting, though, that
it is bad practice for authors to decide when the user gets a new window).

> values), to the <a/> element? I think it is natural for the author of a 
> document to specify whether a hyperlink target deviates from the flow of 

My experience is its only natural for the author to specify behaviour and
using whatever hacks work with current popular browsers.

> the document. Adding @show only to <a/> would make its role clearer, and 
> justify <a/> being in the spec at all.