Re: Dictionaries and possible media type ambiguity

Jason wrote:

> Firstly, I must correct an error which was made in my previous message
> regarding dictionaries. Contrary to what I therein suggested, it is
> possible to have a general link type (rel="dictionary") and still ensure
> that a dictionary which is intended to control a speech synthesizer is
> only loaded by speech-based user agents:
> 
> <link href="dictionary.html" rel="dictionary" media="speech">
> 
> The user agent can then retrieve the dictionary and determine from the
> file format, which is yet to be defined, whether it contains phonetic data
> or abbreviations and their expansions.

It's not clear to me that the 'media' rather than the 'class'
attribute is better suited for that. As defined, the media range is
not sufficient to convey all kind of dictionary types. Maybe these two
are orthogonal in fact.
 
> Now I would like to turn to the second issue, namely a possible ambiguity
> in the definition of the default media type. This working group has
> proposed, and the HTML/CSS working groups have accepted, that "screen"
> should be the default media type. This default gives a correct result when
> the target of the link is a style sheet:
> 
> <link rel="stylesheet" href="mystyles.css" type="text/css">
> 
> This refers to a CSS style sheet which, owing to the default media type of
> "screen", will be retrieved by the user agent and acted upon only if
> output is being directed to a screen display.
> 
> However, in the section of the HTML 4.0 draft devoted to the LINK element,
> there are various other link types defined, for which a default media type
> of "screen" would be inappropriate. Thus:
> 
> <link rel="contents" href="contents.html" title="Table of Contents">
> 
> In this case, the default media type of "screen" should not be implied;
> the link to the table of contents is capable of being rendered in any
> medium. For example, a speech-based user agent might announce the title
> defined in the LINK element prior to rendering the text of the document.
> 
> Thus, media="screen" should only be the default where rel="stylesheet" or
> rel="alternate stylesheet"
> 
> Is this correct, or am I falling into error and confusion again?

Not at all, I think this is implied by the way the spec is organized
(media types being defined in the SS section only) but this is worth
the precision.

The default media in the other case should probably be defined as
"current".

Received on Wednesday, 17 September 1997 05:59:51 UTC