Re: Issue 545: In Guideline 6, clarify "content state" rather than "content"

Ian,

>So "is selected" refers to a state of a piece of content, whereas
>"the selection" refers to the set of all things selected?

Correct. Furthermore (since you are on the DOM spin), much of the "state"
information can be retrieved from the DOM through the attributes.


Here is an example from the HTML DOM API for an option element:

interface HTMLOptionElement : HTMLElement {
  readonly attribute HTMLFormElement form;
           attribute boolean         defaultSelected;
  readonly attribute DOMString       text;
  readonly attribute long            index;
           attribute boolean         disabled;
           attribute DOMString       label;
           attribute boolean         selected;
           attribute DOMString       value;
};


Where, the current value is the "value."

Some of the state information can be found in states are disabled,
selected. Not included her is if it has focus. This information would need
to be provided by the browser through some alternative means.


Here is an example for an html style element:

interface HTMLStyleElement : HTMLElement {
           attribute boolean         disabled;
           attribute DOMString       media;
           attribute DOMString       type;
};

The state of disabled indicates whether this style sheet is disabled. Media
and type type are values.

Rich


Rich Schwerdtfeger
Senior Technical Staff Member
IBM Accessibility Center
Research Division
EMail/web: schwer@us.ibm.com

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.",
Frost



                                                                                                                                        
                      "Ian B. Jacobs"                                                                                                   
                      <ij@w3.org>              To:       Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM@IBMUS                                         
                      Sent by:                 cc:       Philippe Le Hegaret <plh@w3.org>, Ray Whitmer <rayw@netscape.com>,             
                      w3c-wai-ua-reques         w3c-wai-ua@w3.org, w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org                                            
                      t@w3.org                 Subject:  Re: Issue 545: In Guideline 6, clarify "content state" rather than   "content" 
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        
                      09/24/2002 03:58                                                                                                  
                      PM                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        




Richard Schwerdtfeger wrote:
> Ian,
>
> Regarding the proposed wording to address state information I believe it
is
> important that we define the correct terminology as it crosssections
> accessibility infrastructure terminology. Note: we may want to extend
> content value to include text of a document element such as a text input
> field.
>
> I propose using the following definitions to the working group and then
> expanding on Ian's proposed changes to incorporate these definitions:
>
>
> Content state - Document content has a condition of being in a stage or
> form during its use known as its "state." The state of document content
is
> ususally defined in discrete pre-defined values as should be known by
> assistive technologies designed to support the document. Examples of
> possible object states are:  has focus, selected, visible, is
selecteable,
> checked, focused, activated, pressed, expanded, collapsed, iconified,
> editable, multi-line, resizable, vertical, horizontal, collapsible,
> expandable, and enabled.
>
> Content selection - A collection of document content often selected by
the
> user through some means.

So "is selected" refers to a state of a piece of content, whereas
"the selection" refers to the set of all things selected?

> Content value - An amount assigned to document content. Some document may
> have an assigned value that may change during the course of its use. An
> example of a the use of content value is the currently value of an HTML
> selection object.

I'm mostly interested in hearing from Ray and Philippe whether
this aligns with the DOM model.

Thanks Rich!

  - Ian

--
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Tuesday, 24 September 2002 17:46:04 UTC