Re: Tooltips on element focus

At 02:52 PM 2001-07-26 , Jonathan Chetwynd wrote:
>javascript workarounds for a developer are not the issue I am addressing.
>It is enabling authors and users to use tooltips if they desire and via a
>keyboard.
>This is not helped by individual sites using workarounds, but does relate to
>guidelines and implementation.
>

In my reading of the draft UAAG the guidelines just miss this one, because the
guidelines require the user agent to provide lots of control over the
show/hide/when behavior of content which is specified as conditional
content in
the format specification.  As we said earlier, the use of TITLE as a
tooltip is
recognized in the HTML specification as common or possible but is not defined
to be a function of the language feature.  In a legalistic reading of the
document set, TITLE is conditional content by custom, not specification.  Very
prevalent custom.

So although User Agents may provide controls to never show tooltips, they
don't
provide adjustments to "show tooltips on focus."  And the legal wiring in the
UAAG doesn't actually say they should because there is not the basis in the
HTML spec.

Others may correct me if I got this wrong.  But so near and yet so far.

Over the long haul hopefully PF will have negotiated the necessary teeth into
HTML.  But for now the browsers are serving half a loaf and it would arguably
be appropriate to go after the shape of the function that is implemented (only
here will it do Jonathan any good) now.  But that's HTML-specific.  Rathole. 
Sigh.

Al

>jonathan chetwynd
>IT teacher (LDD)
>j.chetwynd@btinternet.com
><http://www.peepo.com/>http://www.peepo.com         "The first and still the
best picture directory
>on the web"
>  

Received on Thursday, 26 July 2001 15:37:17 UTC