Re: handling fallback content for still images

On Jul 5, 2007, at 13:10, Robert Burns wrote:

> I've said this again and again this will take a long-term solution  
> approach. In that time-frame authors may not even know what a text/ 
> html compatible serialization is? They won't be confused because  
> there might come a time when no one uses that serialization anymore.

For that argument to hold water, you should present a plausible story  
of how we could get from the current configuration of the world to  
that imaginary configuration of the world (taking into account real  
incentives that influence how stakeholders act).

So far actual experience suggests that getting from here to there  
doesn't just happen, which is pretty much why this WG exists to do  
the stuff that this WG is supposed to do.

>> Is there any evidence that suggests that authors will start  
>> providing more meaningfull fallback when they can have more than  
>> just text? For instance, what do authors currently do for <object>  
>> when they use it for Flash or video or some such?
>
> I'm not a palm reader. I don't know the future. Is there any  
> evidence that the world wide web will exist next year? I know I  
> couldn't prove it will.

If there's an existing facility for doing foo and authors don't use  
it, anyone who suggests adding a new facility for doing foo should  
present an extremely strong case why the difference between the old  
way of doing foo and the proposed new way of doing foo is the key to  
getting authors to do foo.

> However, it should be a goal of ours to provide a language that  
> services the needs of authors.

If evidence suggests that authors (en masse, not just a few outliers)  
don't use a given facility in an analogous situation, chances are  
that expanding the facility to another situation isn't actually  
servicing the real needs of authors.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Thursday, 5 July 2007 10:48:41 UTC