- From: Mark Birbeck <mark.birbeck@x-port.net>
- Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 11:19:56 +0100
- To: "'Anne van Kesteren'" <fora@annevankesteren.nl>
- Cc: <www-html@w3.org>
Anne,
> So the semantics of the SRC attribute depend on the media
> type of the content they embed and the element they are applied upon?
>
> Ugh!
No...the opposite. The semantics of @src are always the same (to embed an
object) but the real advantage is that the semantics of the *element* are
unchanged by the presence of @src [1]. For example:
<section>
<h src="...">Samples</h>
<p>...</p>
<section>
<h src="...">XML</h>
<p>...</p>
</section>
</section>
<h> remains a heading, regardless of what it renders. Similarly:
<ul>
<li src="...">buy a book</li>
<li src="...">book a ticket</li>
<ul>
<li> remains a list item.
The advantages for accessibility are probably pretty clear.
One little note, since there is therefore no difference in behaviour
between:
<p src="...">fallback text</p>
and:
<img src="...">fallback text</img>
you could say this means that you don't need <img>. However, it's such a
common construct that it has been kept as a shorthand for:
<div src="..." type="image/*">fallback text</div>
Regards,
Mark
[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-xhtml2-20040722/mod-embedding.html
Mark Birbeck
CEO
x-port.net Ltd.
e: Mark.Birbeck@x-port.net
t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232
w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/
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Received on Thursday, 26 May 2005 10:20:18 UTC