OBJECT does not allow a long description

Does anyone see a problem with OBJECT's lack of a LONGDESC attribute for
long descriptions?  OBJECT can contain markup for a rich alternative to the
embedded object, but there is no method of giving a richer description than
the TITLE attribute can provide.

Consider, for example, a company logo, which I might mark up as follows if
using OBJECT:

<OBJECT data="logo.gif" title="XYZ Company Logo">
  XYZ Company
</OBJECT>

A company logo could benefit from a long description, but that's not
possible except by removing the seamless accessibility of the preceding
example and placing the long description within the OBJECT element.  When
we start mixing an object's description and replacement (as has long been
done with IMG's ALT attribute), we make it difficult for user agents to
render content without the seams from a visual Web becoming a distraction.

-- 
Liam Quinn
Web Design Group            Enhanced Designs, Web Site Development
http://www.htmlhelp.com/    http://enhanced-designs.com/

Received on Monday, 4 May 1998 22:01:55 UTC