RE: D-link and LONGDESC (GL type stuff)

1) I would posit that an ALT text that is 65536 characters in length
should probably have been done as a  LONGDESC.   (grin)

2) I concur with the train of though that ALT and LONGDESC will see
little use until they are easily and VISIBLY supported in the tools
used to create web pages.      Jutta and crew are busy on this one.
We ALL need to encourage tool makers to do this.

3) I think the best way to support LONGDESC in a browser is to
- have the browser add a small pretty graphic icon with a D on it next
to any graphic with a LONGDESC.
- The browser can also have a setting which allows a user to HIDE
D-LINKS or HIDE GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION MARKERS (D) so that anyone who
doesn't like them doesn't have to see them.  (they could always see if
there was a LONGDESC and jump to it by right clicking on an icon and
looking at the pop up menu).
- If a page has a LONGDESC and an old fashioned D-LINK, then the
browser could see that they pointed to the same place and hide the old
fashioned D-LINK  (or the new one - no matter)
- Screen readers could recognize the LONGDESC Graphic (it would always
be a graphic since it was put there by the browser, not the html page)
and either pronounce it or skip it when reading, preferably at the
users choice.  (remember the user can cause them to not be displayed
if they like anyway)


Just some thoughts as of today.

Gregg



> Not true.  I've had ALT text in Internet Explorer longer than 3K
> characters.  SGML/HTML do not define a maximum length.

Not true.  Although not usually enforced, HTML's SGML declaration
*does* define a maximum length (see
<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/sgmldecl.html>):

                  ATTSPLEN 65536

This limits the total length of attribute names and values, as
contained in the start-tag, to 2^16 characters.

                  LITLEN   65536

This limits the length of any one attribute literal to 2^16
characters.

-Chris

Received on Wednesday, 22 April 1998 20:22:02 UTC