alt attribute on embed (was: NEW: Issue #1782)

In issue 1782 [http://trace.wisc.edu/bugzilla_wcag/show_bug.cgi?id=1782] 
Simon Pieters comments on HTML technique H65("Using alt attributes on embed 
elements"), saying :"There is no alt attribute for <embed>. At least there 
are no implementations
of an alt attribute for <embed> that I'm aware of."
Microsoft's document for embed 
[http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/objects/embed.asp] 
does not list the alt attribute.
Netscape's documentation 
[http://devedge-temp.mozilla.org/library/manuals/1998/htmlguide/tags14.html#1286379] 
specifies the attributes src, type, height and a few others, adding: "In 
addition to these standard attributes, plug-ins can optionally have private 
attributes to communicate specialized information between the HTML page and 
the plug-in code. Netscape Navigator ignores all nonstandard attributes 
when parsing the HTML. It passes all attributes to the plug-in, allowing 
the plug-in to examine the list for any private attributes that could 
modify its behavior." This clearly allows alt, even if it is not supported.
(Netscape's documentation about proposals for HTML 3 
[http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/new_html3_prop.html#Embed] says: 
"The EMBED tag allows the insertion of arbitrary objects directly into an 
HTML page. Embedded objects are supported by application-specific plug-ins. 
EMBED can take arbitrary attributes." This was going to be submitted to the 
IETF and W3 for consideration for HTML 3.0, but embed was not accepted.)
(J.J. Solari's custom DTD 
[http://www.yoyodesign.org/doc/dtd/xhtml1-embed.html.en#add2] does not 
allow the alt attribute on  embed, but that does not constitute evidence.)

Regards,

Christophe Strobbe


-- 
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Departement of Electrical Engineering - Research Group on 
Document Architectures
Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 - 3001 Leuven-Heverlee - BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/ 


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Received on Friday, 9 December 2005 13:43:20 UTC