- From: Leif Halvard Silli <lhs@malform.no>
- Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:48:10 +0100
- To: Steve Axthelm <steveax@pobox.com>
- CC: Robert J Burns <rob@robburns.com>, Simon Pieters <simonp@opera.com>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, HTMLWG <public-html@w3.org>
Steve Axthelm 2009-03-01 23.16: > On 2009-02-27 Robert J Burns <rob@robburns.com> wrote: >> In conclusion, we do not want the 'summary' attribute value exposed by >> UAs by default in the flow of a document. We need to leave that up to >> authors and users. However, authoring modes and in the chrome exposure >> of the 'summary' attribute helps ensure proper use of the attribute. > > Well put. Let me describe what I think is not an uncommon situation for > web authors... > > As a front-end web author, I get my style direction from a graphic > designer/art director and copy from the marketing/content folks. > Inserting visible extra copy (table summary information) into a web > document, whether that is @summary exposed in the normal flow of the > document, or stuffing @summary information into caption, will almost > certainly raise objections from the sources of style and content > direction. Yes, in theory, I might be able to convince those parties > that the visible @summary information is valuable and should be > retained, but I can assure you that I will lose that argument in the > vast majority of cases. > > @summary, as it currently stands, allows me as a front-end author, to > add this valuable information without in a manner that will not be > overruled. > > Keeping @summary and @caption separate and retaining the the rendering > differences gives me the flexibility to add valuable metadata in places > where I would _not_, given all other considerations, otherwise be able > to add it. If this was related to caption@summary, then the argument is that it is easier to convince third parties about <table summary="Text."> than about <caption summary="Text."></caption>. Yes, one problem with caption@summary is: what if the site has caption{height:1em}, then you will have to e.g. apply <caption style="height:0" summmary="Text."> to hide the box of the caption. But this can also be an advantage. It becomes easy to check which tables you added a caption@summary for. caption[summary]{background:red;height:1em} -- leif halvard silli
Received on Sunday, 1 March 2009 23:48:58 UTC