Re: MAP navbars

Nir, my question was not about how it should be done - it was clear that
you had carefully read the spec, and you are quite right that it can be
used trivially without an IMG or OBJECT.  (although if it is an inline
then presumably it should go inside, rather than outside, the <P>.
Actually it seems strange that it be an inline element at all.) My
question was whether, in the case where it is used with an image, the
content of A elements is rendered in the same way the the ALT value for
AREA elements, which would make it a very useful way of doing things. It
would address some of Gary's concerns about link redundancy, the concerns
about having proper ALT text available, the concerns about backwards
compatibility, and provide the ability to jump links at the beginning, all
in one go. 

(What I am suggesting here is that the Page Authoring Guideines suggest 
that ALT text for an image map declare that the links are reproduced 
below, by means of a MAP (as Nir suggested) and that in the UA 
guidelines it require that content of A elements which are part of a MAP 
be rendered as ALT text for the relevant regions. Thus settling all (I 
think) the concerns which are raised by Client-side Image maps, asking 
for less redundancy (which is a good thing) and providing a solution to 
the problem originally raised which works now (unlike the other elegant 
solutions we had thought of) and which is an elegant solution.

Charles McCathieNevile

Received on Sunday, 15 November 1998 05:25:26 UTC