[whatwg] Definition of alt= attribute

[Ian Hickson]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>
> For a while I've been honing a clearer definition of the alt= attribute, 
> one that tries to curtail the worst misuses of the attribute without 
> being horribly wordy. Since alt= is not yet defined in the Web 
> Applications 1.0 draft, my text may be useful.

Indeed it will be! Thanks for this.


> In HTML 4 alt= is an attribute for <img>, <applet>, and <input>. I can 
> think of no reason for <input alt= to exist (<form alt= would make 
> slightly more sense, for non-interactive UAs)

<input alt=""> is for <input type="image" src="..." alt="">.



> To produce sensible alternate text, authors should follow these 
> guidelines:</p>
> 
> <ul>
> <li><p>Do not ...
> <li><p>Do not ...

Is there any way you can phrase these in a positive sense, or at least 
reorder them so that the start of the first bullet point is positive?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'