[Bug 21894] Do not define @longdesc as a hyperlink. Instead, define it as a link analogous to @cite.

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=21894

--- Comment #6 from Leif Halvard Silli <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no> ---
(In reply to comment #5)

> which is what I would expect and hope user agents do with the URL contained
> in the longdesc attribute.

To say that user agents should treat longdesc "*like* a hyperlink", and define
how far that alikening goes, should be OK. In fact, something like that was
what I suggested in comment #4. 

However, the word 'hyperlink' has *surprisingly* many connotations with regard
to user experience. E.g. we don’t expect anchor element links to be treated in
'special ways' when it comes to what happens when users activate them. By
contrast, users have much less control on how to open longdesc URLs (in part
because because it is supposed to be avaible also when img is child of an <a>)
and on what happens when one does open them (one cannot control whether it
opens in same tab/window or in another tab/window) - all this seem to be much
more rigid for longdesc compared to hyperlinks.

Perhaps the current text could be changed to this:

]]
The URL MUST point to a description of the image that its parent img element
represents. User agents are expected to allow longdesc URLs to be followed in a
fashion similar to how they <a
href="HTML5spec/links.html#following-hyperlinks">follow hyperlinks</a>, but
with the restriction that the interface to follow the link MUST be acccessible
also in case the IMG is child of an anchor element.

<p class="note">
The longdesc attribute does not turn the img into interactive content, per
HTML5’s definition, and an img with the longdesc attribute set is thus
permitted to be the child of an <a> element.</p>

<p class="note">It is common, but not required, that the user interface to
follow the longdesc URL is one that works whether the img is or isn’t a child
of a hyperlnk.</p>

<p class="note">It is quite common, but not required, that the longdesc URL
opens in a browsing context (typically tab or window) that is parallel to the
current browsing context.</p>
[[

(In fact, it surprises me to discover that section 3.0.3 on User Agents
currently says nothing about access to longdesc when img is child of an anchor
element ....)

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Received on Monday, 20 May 2013 15:23:19 UTC