providing equivalent access to a FRAMESET using LONGDESC (technique)

Technique for Providing an Equivalent Alternative to a FRAMESET using LONGDESC

[Note: In writing techniques for exposing equivalent alternatives to 
FRAMESETs, i have given use of the LONGDESC attribute short shrift.  he 
following is offered as what i believe to be the most rational way of 
providing access to a FRAMESET that lacks a NOFRAMES section, but for whose 
FRAMEs LONGDESCs have been defined.  While i still believe that robust 
NOFRAMES content included in the FRAMESET is a far superior authoring 
practice for providing an alternative to the FRAMEs defined in that 
FRAMESET, individual authors may well chose to provide LONGDESCs for each 
FRAME instead, and it is to address this eventuality that the following 
Technique is proposed.]

1. Expose the content of the LONGDESC defined for each FRAME
    inline (i.e. create a frames-free view using the content
    contained in the referred URI for each LONGDESC)

2. Render the "title" defined for each FRAME (or, preferably, the
    content contained in the TITLE element on the referred
    LONGDESC document) as a level 2 header (H2); to provide
    structure for the page

3. Render the TITLE defined for the FRAMESET as a level one
    (H1) header for the pseudo-NOFRAMES/FRAMEs-free page

4. Create a navigation bar (using the MAP element in HTML)
    to provide the user with an efficient means of navigating
    the document by header; each section should also contain
    a terminal "Return to Navigation Bar" hyperlink which
    links back to the MAP element; alternatively, the user
    agent could generate a "Next" "Previous" "Contents" sub-
    navigation bar to the end of the source obtained from
    the URI referenced in the LONGDESC for the FRAME,
    immediately preceding the next level 2 header.

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He that lives on Hope, dies farting
      -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
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Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
    WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC
         <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html>
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Received on Tuesday, 25 April 2000 19:11:51 UTC