Re: Draft text for summary attribute definition

Robert J Burns 2009-03-01 20.09:
> On Mar 1, 2009, at 1:55 PM, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>> Robert J Burns 2009-03-01 19.24:

>>> [...] However, I don't yet see how moving the summary from
>>> the table to the caption substantially addresses the
>>> confusions. Indeed I'm concerned it might introduce other
>>> confusion.

>> But if HTML5 goes for caption@summary then it can be
>> portrayed this way:
>> 
>> Because authors did not see that the two has to have
>> different content, and because authors kept writing "layout
>> tables" in table@summary, something they are not known to use
>> <caption> for, @summary was moved to <caption> to help
>> authors to discern between the <caption> and @summary and to
>> help them see that both are visible metadata, except that
>> @summary is only visible for the unsighted. (Plus that it is
>> easier to test via CSS etc.)
> 
> I think that is an excellent point. I would also add to that
> another point. While Gez earlier lamented the problem of adding
> an empty 'caption' element simply to provide a summary of the
> table, I think in practice we would find it very rare to have a
> table so complex to require a summary, but not needing a
> caption. I cannot say I have every encountered such a table,
> but they might exist.

I don't want to hide any issues: Matt mentioned something about 
'navigation tables' [1] (which to mee seems like a variant of 
layout tables, to be frank). But other than that, I agree strongly.

> Also sometimes a change like this has the effect or raising
> awareness, where without the change the same poor practices
> might simply continue.

I think so too.

[1] http://www.w3.org/mid/C5CC65E2.19D81%25mattmay@adobe.com
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Sunday, 1 March 2009 20:00:48 UTC