[whatwg] [WF2] - Suggestion - Make the "alt" Attribute implied for all elements.

Jim Ley jim.ley at gmail.com
Wed Jan 5 07:17:24 PST 2005


On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 09:19:17 -0500, Matthew Raymond
<mattraymond at earthlink.net> wrote:
> ...should look like this...
> 
> <img src="image.png">
> 
>    What are everyone's thoughts on this?

It makes quality assurance harder, since visual indication of alt is
not obvious from testing, automated scripts are used which can easily
ensure that no alt attributes that are needed are missed. Making it
implied makes this harder.

It also makes user agents that use the absense of an alt attribute a
trigger for fix up behaviour unable to tell when it should carry out
the fix up, either leading it to not bother attempting it or to
attempt it so aggressively that it has to spend loads of time on doing
it on each and every image.

WIth both of these reasons, and not a single reason from you as to why
it would be beneficial, I think it's an easy decision to leave it as
is.

Jim.



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