RE: tooltip onfocus

Yup, I further get a chuckle when I'm told that the ALT TEXT "tool tip"
provides contextual information when the user mouses over the image (etc.).
Never mind that not everyone uses a mouse, as Jonathan has pointed out, but
the latest versions of Netscape/Mozilla DO NOT produce "tool tips" via the
alt text.  This behaviour only "appears" if you use the Title element. (The
look on their faces was, well, I won't be mean...)

I support Chaas' statement regarding conformance to Standards:

> so in my opinion pushing for conformance to UAAG, and making it easy to
> upgrade browsers, is more effective than trying to create yet  another
> standard that does the same thing but isn't implemented.

HTML is a structural markup language and NOT a desktop publishing medium.
Insisting that the code/standards/browser should do this that or the other
is unrealistic (IMVHO) and contrary to the intent (and spirit) of the
language/code.  I appreciate that it has become a defacto communication
method which crosses large swaths of our society, but again as Chaas so
elequently stated, using screwdrivers to remove screws from wood is
preferable to pliers (or a crow-bar).  HTML/XHTML/XML is not the way to
achieve browser behaviour, and should never be so.  These markup languages
should be used as intended, to apply structural logic to a document's
contents... nothing more, nothing less.  CSS for "pretty", SMIL for
multi-media, SVG for graphical control (I cannot claim any experience here),
etc. - the point is, the right tool for the appropriate job.

Just my $0.02 worth.

JF




> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of David Woolley
> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 2:03 AM
> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: tooltip onfocus
>
>
>
> > *I had not realised that tooltip onmouseover is not a w3c standard for
> > visual browsers, though was aware that opera behaved somewhat
>
> Tooltips are not a W3C standard.  They just happen to be how Microsoft
> chose to implement alt attributes initially, and then title, using an
> existing user interface concept, designed for a very different purpose
> for alt and for a slightly different one for title.
>
> Most commercial designers seem to think that alt means tooltip, rather
> than alternative text.  For them, though a tooltip tends to be be an
> instruction, rather than simply an explanation, as title should be.
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 21 January 2003 08:11:38 UTC