Re: Query from APA WG on longdesc usage

Thanks Bill.   Your answer is related but not exactly to the question I 
intended to ask.

The question here is specifically about the longdesc attribute to W3C 
HTML5; i.e.

   https://www.w3.org/TR/html-longdesc/

Other architecturally similar variants, such as a <long-desc> element, 
can be evidence of a still-useful concept but are less relevant to the 
HTML specification.

And yes; this is a question about the actual use in practice.

-Ralph

On 2019-08-12 03:31 PM, Bill Kasdorf wrote:
> I can report that the XML model that is pretty much universally used in 
> scholarly publishing--JATS for journals and its counterpart BITS for 
> books--contains longdesc in the form <long-desc>, as well as the element 
> <alt-text>.  In my modeling work I always encourage the use of both, 
> with <alt-text> being used for the content of the required @alt 
> attribute on <img> in HTML and the content of <long-desc> for what would 
> currently be referred to as an extended description. What I can't report 
> is how much they are actually used in practice; I hope some of the 
> publishers or service providers in the PBG or PBGSC can comment on that.
> 
> The best way to find out how commonly those are used would probably be 
> to check with the major scholarly journal hosts--Atypon (now owned by 
> Wiley and thus a W3C member), HighWire Press, Silverchair, and Ingenta. 
> The four of those host the vast majority of scholarly journal content. 
> Atypon has the biggest proportion of those four so I would suggest 
> checking with Marty Picco of Atypon as a start (mpicco@atypon.com 
> <mailto:mpicco@atypon.com>).
> 
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> On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 2:26 PM Ralph Swick <swick@w3.org 
> <mailto:swick@w3.org>> wrote:
> 
>     In what Publishing forum is Janina Sajka's query about current usage of
>     longdesc in Publishing best addressed?
> 
>     On 2019-08-12 12:21 PM, Janina Sajka wrote:
>      > Hi, Judy:
>      >
>      > APA has become aware that there is a proposal afoot to obsolete
>      > longdesc. We would likely not oppose that unless there is still
>     use of
>      > longdesc, perhaps in legacy education publications still actively in
>      > distribution.
>      >
>      > If there is still such use, or if Details/Summary and/or
>     Annotations use
>      > isn't sufficiently mature to completely replace longdesc, we need to
>      > know that from our Publishing people.
>      >
>      > It seemed this would be a useful agendum for our upcoming CC call.
>      >
>      > Best,
>      >
>      > Janina
>      >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> *Bill Kasdorf*
> /Principal, Kasdorf & Associates, LLC/
> /Founding Partner, Publishing Technology Partners 
> <https://pubtechpartners.com/>
> /
> kasdorf.bill@gmail.com <mailto:kasdorf.bill@gmail.com>
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>

Received on Monday, 12 August 2019 19:57:45 UTC