- From: Liam Quinn <liam@htmlhelp.com>
- Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 18:27:02 -0500
- To: www-html@w3.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 02:01 PM 12/11/97 -0800, Benjamin Franz wrote: >On Wed, 12 Nov 1997, Liam Quinn wrote: >> At 06:25 AM 12/11/97 -0800, Benjamin Franz wrote: >> > The modifications are: >> > >> > Changed the HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes on IMG elements to >> > be #REQUIRED vice #IMPLIED. This improves perceived speed and/or >> > document display stability considerably in nearly all existing >> > browsers. >> >> It also means that ALT text for small images is unreadable in nearly all >> existing browsers. For this reason, many people recommend against using >> WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes for small images with important ALT text. > >The ALT text problem is a *solvable* problem in browser implementation >where the layout hangup caused by no HEIGHT or WIDTH attributes is not. Good point, but while we're talking about solutions, I think it's time to recognize that specifying width and height in a style sheet (once for one image in a site) is easier and provides greater flexibility than including the width and height with each and every <IMG> tag. While I almost always use the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes myself, I would not want to see them REQUIRED since that would prevent the real solution (style sheets) from becoming a reality. >A >smart browser (like say, Spyglass Mosaic) can do intelligent things with >ALT text when images are turned off if the programmer is thinking beyond >the graphics. I haven't touched Spyglass Mosaic in a long time, but Opera handles ALT text very well when images are turned off. It shows the text as it would show plain text, except that it adds a border around it (I guess to indicate to the user that an image is present--ideally this should be a user option). Netscape 2.x isn't too bad; it ignores WIDTH and HEIGHT when image loading is off, and instead sizes the image frame based on the ALT text, but it still includes that ugly "THERE'S AN IMAGE HERE, STUPID!" icon. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBNGo7Q/P8EtNrypTwEQKKtQCfSneA0RcHlnPqrsJKg+Kx66XsiYYAn0H4 WP99QRmelL4bSawxfS0NzlKS =rDgL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Liam Quinn Web Design Group Enhanced Designs, Web Site Development http://www.htmlhelp.com/ http://enhanced-designs.com/
Received on Wednesday, 12 November 1997 18:26:01 UTC