Re: [html4all] HTML5 Alternative Text, and Authoring Tools

On 5/15/08 11:57 AM, "Dave Singer" <singer@apple.com> wrote:
>> So what should an authoring tool do when someone creates an <img> element
>> with no @src? (Not a 404, a missing @src.) What about a missing </table>? An
>> unclosed attribute value? An unterminated entity? Guessing at any of these
>> things can have unintended negative consequences.
> 
> These are all syntax errors (or pointless constructions) which a
> WYSIWYG tool can easily avoid.

Not a WYSIWYG with a source view. Which nearly all of them have.

As it is, a number of the authoring tools cited do the right thing: they
prompt for @alt, and in its absence, omit its generation. That is, they see
that it's a damaged structure, and being unaware of how to repair it
authoritatively, they do not compound the damage by making it invisible to
checking tools -- or end users.

When the human asserts that it knows better than the tool, the tool must
stand aside. This is a key principle in ATAG, partly because so many authors
had problems _adding_ accessibility features to documents using certain
authoring tools because the tool didn't understand the resulting code, then
wiped it out without the author's knowledge.

-
m

Received on Thursday, 15 May 2008 20:06:42 UTC