[Bug 21436] New: @longdesc should, @src, be a valid *non-empty* URL.

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21436

            Bug ID: 21436
           Summary: @longdesc should, @src, be a valid *non-empty* URL.
    Classification: Unclassified
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: PC
               URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-html-longdesc-20130312/#l
                    ongdesc
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML Image Description Extension
          Assignee: chaals@yandex-team.ru
          Reporter: xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no
        QA Contact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: public-html-admin@w3.org

PROPOSAL:

  Update the definition of the content of the @longdesc attribute to match the
requirements for the @src attribute.


CURRENT SITUATION:

  Referring to its definition in HTML5,[1] the HTML Image Description Extension
spec currently says that the content of the @longdesc attribute MUST be:

   ]] a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces [[

  This definition, however, is too loose. For contrast, the definition of the
img element’s @src attribute pointes to HTML5’s definition of 'a validt
non-empty URL'.[2] Thus, @src is required to be: [3]

   ]] a valid non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces [[


WHY CURRENT SITUATION IS DANGEROUS:

  The consequence of the above is that the HTML5 validator whines if the @src
attribute only contains the empty string (including the empty string surrounded
by spaces) - which is nice. But, conversely, if the @longdesc attribute
contains the empty string (potentially surrounded by spaces), the validator
does (currently) not whine.[4] 

  It is also worth mentioning that in the infamous Longdesc Lottery, then "is
blank" (followed by "is not a valid URL"), is the first mentioned example of
longdesc misuse.[5] When possible, the HTML Image Description Extension spec
should demonstrate that it tries to avoid the issues that the Longdesc Lottery
article takes up.

[1]
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/infrastructure.html#valid-url-potentially-surrounded-by-spaces
[2]
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/infrastructure.html#valid-non-empty-url
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/embedded-content-0.html#attr-img-src
[4] http://tinyurl.com/emptyLongdesc
[5] http://blog.whatwg.org/the-longdesc-lottery

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Received on Friday, 29 March 2013 17:24:17 UTC