Re: ISSUE-30 (Longdesc) Change Proposal

Charles McCathieNevile On 09-10-26 18.53:

> Hello,
> 
> I would like to propose that the longdesc attribute from HTML 4 be  
> retained in HTML 5 as an allowed attribute on images. This implies the  
> following changes to the spec:


1+

 

[...]

> RATIONALE:

[...]

> However, it has been implemented multiple times successfully. The fact  
> that there is bad data associated might account for low overall usage, but  
> has relatively little impact on implementations, which can readily choose  
> to simply ignore values which are not URIs, or even to present the value  
> to the user, and relatively little impact on the user, who can still  
> benefit from a *good* usage.
> 
> This would require conformance checking to accept the attribute as valid,  
> and would imply maintaining the existing requirement on Authoring Tools[2]  
> to allow the author to use this functionality. It would maintain  
> conformance of HTML-4 tools and content, rather than the current expected  
> change leaving them non-conforming.

Another argument for this feature is, I think (as have been 
mentioned earlier) that aria-describedby="" can be used for the 
same thing.

I have not checked the sections of HTML 5 that you say would be 
impacted. However, you did not mention ARIA. Should @longdesc be 
mapped to one of the @aria attributes, like aria-describedby? Or 
should it - more - retain its specialty: being a link to a 
separate page (which could very well be a AJAXed, page, I 
imagine)? There seems to me to be an user expectation w.r.t. 
longdesc that the user gets a new page, and close that page and be 
immediately back to where he/she was.

In that regard: iCab 4 lists the @longdesc URI in its "links of 
this page" feature.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Monday, 26 October 2009 18:38:54 UTC