Re: ALT revisited

to follow up on what Dave Raggett said:
> 
> One proposal quite a few years old is for authors to provide
> a null value for alt as distinct from omiting alt, e.g.
> 
>   <img src=blank.gif alt="">
> 

This is not just a proposal.  Lynx responds reasonably well to
this usage and there are authors using it.

> User agents would be recommended to default alt based
> upon the url's name, e.g.
> 
>   <img src=logo.gif> would yield  "logo" as the default.
> 
> Does this sound reasonable?
> 

There are better defaulting rules, but they take more work.  Have
you read

http://www.access.digex.net/%7Easgilman/web-access/announce-two.html

and the attached note about "metadata percolation"?

The proposal there reflects my reaction to several go-arounds on
this issue on the lynx-dev list [not a Lynx consensus, may I make
clear].  [More in reponse to Daniel...]

WARNING: I don't think that we have time enough to reach a
consensus on this issue here before you release this draft, even
if it's not tomorrow.

--
Al Gilman

Received on Monday, 30 June 1997 12:44:46 UTC