Re: ToolTips: bug or feature?

Gregory J. Rosmaita writes:

> lachlan wrote, quote:
> 
> > The alt attribute is only rendered as a tooltip in IE, and 
> > that's considered a bug for a variety of reasons. See this article.
> > 
> > http://hixie.ch/advocacy/alt-tooltips
> 
> i find hixie's arguments, decidedly unconvincing.  there ARE valid
> reasons why @alt and @title should be exposed to the user onMouseOver
> -- as i indicated, what you perceive as a logical icon may not be
> understood by a sighted visitor from a vastly different culture,

Or even a non-techie person from the author's own culture.  Icons, while
often convenient shortcuts for those in the know, often need further
explanatory information to be available on request.

> so a tooltip exposition of ALT text is actually beneficial to users of
> all stripes.

Not so.  Alt attributes are merely for _alternatives_ of the same
information.  An explanation of what an icon means is _additional_
information, useful to those who've seen the icon; the title attribute
would be appropriate for this, quite possibly made available as a
tooltip in browsers.

That scenario doesn't provide any reason for alt attributes to be made
available as tooltips.

Smylers

Received on Monday, 30 July 2007 09:11:29 UTC