Re: 48-Hour Consensus Call: InstateLongdesc CP Update

Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
> There is obviously a possibility to register bugs on all the browsers
> and tools that are doing the wrong thing. Is the likelihood of them
> fixing it high? And how long will it take? Might it be faster to
> introduce something new an untainted?

This is the question! For the sake of argument, if we take it that 
@longdesc _has_ actually failed (and that this failure wasn't just the 
result of some internal HTML5 politics) and that is why we are having 
these discussions in the first place - we need to understand why? This 
is vital - as the use cases that originated the need for @longdesc in 
the first place still remain and need to be accommodated.

So the questions are:

1) Why did it fail? From the perspective of both the end user experience 
and also browser implementation.
2) What can we do to avoid these failures and improve upon a method to 
support the original use cases that it was designed to accommodate? The 
inception of @longdesc wasn't pulled out of the sky for no good reason.

Before we do this however, we need to consolidate our position 
internally. To do this I suggest the partial reinstating of @longdesc 
(with warnings is fine with me) and when this is done - effort to gain 
some traction amongst friends here that actually moving forward is a 
good idea and that we collectively support the re-engineering of a new 
solution.

Without these simple steps, I strongly feel the energy that will be 
dissipated in appeasing what have been previously irreconcilable views 
will be utterly divisive and counter productive.

Josh

Received on Sunday, 16 September 2012 10:29:33 UTC