- From: Al Gilman <asgilman@iamdigex.net>
- Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 10:35:49 -0400
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
At 01:11 PM 2000-10-08 +0100, jonathan chetwynd wrote: >If you are using Explorer and windows98 you might like to visit: >http://www.signbrowser.org.uk/2k/testing/champagne.html >can anyone advise me how prevalent this type of linkage is acroos the web,. It is not prevalent, but there is a standard. That is if you spell the file: URL correctly. The page you cite uses a Windows syntax filespec rather than an Internet-standard file: URL but the capability is there across all platforms if you use the standard syntax. However file: URLs as resource references have addressing problems. It is hard to have all the people who are going to use the same resource have it at the same filepath in their local file system. If a file: URL used in a Help or diagnostic page supplied by the Operating System vendor made such a reference into a system-reserved area then the reference could be sure that the right stuff will be in the right place. But people don't do things that way. Recognizing objects by their earmarks is more effective than by their location. Don't get yourself sidetracked on trying to bend the service out of shape to conserve bandwidth. You should be focused on how effective the verbal:visual mapping resource is in the imagery it presents to convey an idea. A search engine can be instructed to care about the size of what it finds, and only bomb you with megapixels when there is no plausible alternative. Compare and contrast what you get with GuruNet with what you get with Webster. Each has its place, but if you want images, you aren't going to find a good dictionary that covers the variety of words, and something that works off found resources is a better bet. If SVG succeeds, and if we persuade an appreciable fraction of the SVG sourcing authors to include descriptions [svg:desc elements] for the obvious, articulable objects in their material, we would have a resource for you in spades. You grope the descriptions starting with the word you want to explain and with your thesaurus in the other hand. Then you filter what you found and figure out (it could be a ring of visuals around the offending word) how to present the top contenders in what you found. Voila! Visual GuruNet. Al
Received on Sunday, 8 October 2000 10:13:12 UTC