- From: Boris Zbarsky <bzbarsky@MIT.EDU>
- Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:42:16 -0400
- To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- CC: "public-html@w3.org" <public-html@w3.org>
Ian Hickson wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Philip Taylor wrote:
>> <img src="..." alt="{x \over y} = {1 \over {y \over x}}">
>
....
> <img src="..." alt="The fraction x over y is equal to 1 divided by the
> fraction y over x.">
I'm not sure how things would work when listening (not much experience
trying to listen to even moderately complicated math unaccompanied by
visual representation here, and I suspect both approaches Really Suck
for anything complicated, if only because working memory fills up), but
if I were browsing in lynx I'd definitely prefer the former to the
latter.
Of course the real question here is target audience. If this is a
general-population-targeted document, with presumably simple equations,
then the second alternative is better. If the document is targeted at a
more technical audience, and as the equation complexity increases, the
first option becomes more and more readable compared to the second one.
-Boris
Received on Thursday, 7 August 2008 20:43:02 UTC