opinions on deprecated code plus

All, we're having a discussion on campus, and I'd like a few more opinions.
thanks in advance.

1. The wiggle room on the deprecated code issue is the wording; it
says "avoid" not don't.

2. It is still necessary or maybe easier to use deprecated codes,
particular attributes, at times to get pages to display correctly
since style sheets do not always produce the desired results.

XXX is correct that they don't adversely affect the accessibility of
the sites and that is really the point. Until style sheets of some
other method is universally adopted this will be an on going issue.
I think we should try to not to use dreprecated code but we should
get to hung up on it either.


I commented on the use of the ATTRIBUTES "bgcolor" with the BODY
tag, "align" with the P tag, and "width" with the TD tag.  The
XXX webmaster thought I was referring to the ELEMENTS
like BODY,P, and TD instead of the ATTRIBUTES like
"bgcolor","align",and "width".  I'm also referring to the specific
combination of ATTRIBUTES/ELEMENTS since those attributes are
not depricated everywhere.  Guideline 11.2 says "Avoid deprecated features of
W3C technologies."  The example that the guidelines refers to is the
FONT element, but if they meant just elements then they would have used
the word "elements".  They refer to both elements and attributes on
their techniques page.  If you look under each of those elements then
you will see that those attributes are depricated.

The reason that I bring up the depricated attributes issue is
that the "bgcolor", "align", and "width" attributes are used on most
web pages and most people don't realize that they've been depricated
for certain elements.  I think that the guideline is quite clear that
you can't use these attributes, but there's probably not any impact
on accessibility if you do.


Alice Anderson
Learning Technology Initiatives Coordinator
Technology Accessibility Program (TAP) Coordinator
University of Wisconsin-Madison, DoIT
1307 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706

alice.anderson@doit.wisc.edu
608.262.2129

Received on Saturday, 17 February 2001 18:29:30 UTC