- From: Craig Francis <craig@synergycms.com>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:38:42 +0100
- To: Gregory J. Rosmaita <oedipus@hicom.net>
- Cc: HTML WG <public-html@w3.org>, wai-xtech@w3.org, James Graham <jg307@cam.ac.uk>, joshue.oconnor@cfit.ie
On 24 Jun 2007, at 21:12, Gregory J. Rosmaita wrote: > when encountering a portrait of Lord Cornwallis, it isn't sufficient > to simply caption the image "Portrait of Lord Cornwallis, ca. 1774" > -- the student of the subject needs to know precisely how Lord > Cornwallis is portrayed -- how old was he at the time of the > portrait? what kind of hairstyle does he sport? what type of > uniform? what do the buttons on the uniform signify? what is his > rank, based on the eppalettes? what are the items that are included > in the portrait, particularly those held by, or within reach of, the > portrait's subject, for all such items have both symbolic and highly > specific meanings, all of which the painter assumed would be > understood by the viewer. Hi Gregory, I have known about the @longdesc for years, but have never actually used it... but a description like that really shows how useful it can be. It could be argued that such a description should exist on the page itself... but I am sure there are cases where this is not possible or relevant... in which case, I hope the contents of the @longdesc become available for all users, though the standard setup of all browsers (not just though extensions). Perhaps if browsers made users aware of the @longdesc, we might see more of its use... perhaps like how Firefox 3 is making users aware of micro-formats, by visually changing the mouse cursor. Craig
Received on Sunday, 24 June 2007 21:39:04 UTC