Re: So, what's left?

David Wagner wrote:
> 
> Ah, It took some digging, but I finally found the XHTML 1.1 working draft.  I
> apologize I misunderstood the comments here, and missed the coninuing existance
> of <applet>.  As a developer, I usually find simpler systems are more flexible
> and robust than complicated ones, and they tend to have longer lives.[...]
> (I always wondered why <img>
> is an empty element with an alt attribute, rather than an element whose content
> is rendered if the UA cannot display it, thus allowing the use of the
> one-thousand words the picture is worth, or such methods as eclosing ASCII art
> in a <pre> element within the <img> element, to approximate a critical
> diagram.)

While this won't become part of XHTML until 2.0, I've proposed changing <img>
in a way similar to your suggestion, but somewhat improved. Rather than having
<img>'s content be #PCDATA, I've suggested a new element type called <alt>,
which replaces the 'alt' attribute. This allows stylesheets and similar mechanisms
to show or hide the node, plus multiple alts can be used to provide multiple
languages (each element containing a different xml:lang attribute value).

[...]
> I do appreciate the discussion on this list.  My success depends in part on
> where the standards are headed, and I just hate to redevelop the same old
> content over and over again. (Though it does pay the bills. ;)

We're trying to be both responsible and conservative in our design, esp.
since XHTML 1.0 and XHTML 1.1 are both in a sense 'transitional' as we
move into XML. The advantage/disadvantage of the W3C consortium is that 
most of the representation is from large corporations, but this also means
that some experts are being paid to spend a lot of time creating these
specs rather than rely on the spare time of people. Amongst the membership 
are many who are trying to do the 'right thing' from an architectural and
socially standpoint.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                                   <mailto:altheim@sonic.net>
Member of Technical Staff, Tools Development & Support
Sun Microsystems, Inc. MS MPK17-102
1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, California 94025  <mailto:altheim@eng.sun.com>

   the honey bee is sad and cross and wicked as a weasel
   and when she perches on you boss she leaves a little measle -- archy

Received on Tuesday, 25 January 2000 02:14:11 UTC