[whatwg] The IMG element, proposing a CAPTION attribute

[Alexey Feldgendler]

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:43:47 +0600, Jeff Seager <Jeff.Seager at wvdrs.org>  
wrote:

>> How is your proposed CAPTION attrbute different from the TITLE attribute
>> already included in HTML4?

> Alexey, the only problem I have with "title" in this context is in the  
> current UA implementations. I'm not as familiar with the W3C specs as  
> many people here, but in practice "title" doesn't display, does it? In  
> Firefox, at least, it displays when the cursor hovers over it. I don't  
> want to explain to non-savvy users that they need to hover over images  
> to get the caption. Instead, we should have a simple way to attach a  
> caption that all user agents interpret as being associated with a  
> particular image. The visual display would be controlled with CSS, but  
> its context should be readily understood by JAWS, Window Eyes, and other  
> non-graphical user agents.

With CSS3 it's possible to display the value of "title" attribute in the  
visual flow. For older UAs a JS implementation is trivial.

>> The problem is that captions can and do have substructure. For instance,
>> a caption might include multiple emphasized or strongly emphasized
>> sections. Attributes just aren't powerful enough for this.

> Why is that, Elliotte? Maybe I just expect less of a caption. After all,  
> don't we just need it to provide an explanation for why or how this  
> graphic image relates to content? It's the content that should carry the  
> real burden. A caption may fulfill a more elaborate purpose in technical  
> and scientific papers, but I don't see that as inherently necessary. I'm  
> open to understand differently, though.

If you don't expect of a caption more than of a simple attribute, then the  
existing "title" attribute should fit your needs.


-- 
Alexey Feldgendler <alexey at feldgendler.ru>
[ICQ: 115226275] http://feldgendler.livejournal.com