[whatwg] <img> element comments

[Simon Pieters]

On Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:06:33 +0200, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>> >
>> > I'm not sure that this usage of <img> is one that the spec today
>> > considers valid. Wouldn't <canvas> be the better way to do this?
>>
>> Indeed it wouldn't, because <canvas> wouldn't work in w3m at all!
>
> Yeah, you're right, <canvas> wouldn't work particularly well for this.
>
> <meter> is probably the right element for this. You can use fallback
> content in the <meter> element to show text in legacy browsers that don't
> support HTML5.
>
>
>> And it seems a little excessive to need to construct a <canvas> when all
>> we want to do is stretch an image horizontally.
>
> What you want to do is show a graph, not stretch an image. The image is
> just the way you've found to do it. However, I don't think it's a valid
> solution.

I don't think this is any more abuse of <img> than e.g. "A group of images  
that form a single larger picture" or "An image not intended for the user".


> You're saying that the meaning of the image is affected by the
> dimensions at which it is drawn, which seems very dubious since it means
> you would lose the meaning if you just copied the image, or if you lost
> the context (the width only means something relative to other widths),
> etc.

"A group of images that form a single larger picture" would also lose the  
meaning if you just copied the image, or if you lost the context.


>> So to reiterate Henri's point, given that browsers (I assume) have to
>> obey disproportionate width= and height= attributes for compatibility
>> with the Web anyway, I don't see the point of requiring authors to make
>> them match the image's proportions.
>
> The point is to catch errors (aspect ratio mistakes) when authors are
> using HTML in a more appropriate manner.

Validators can still issue warnings to help with aspect ratio mistakes  
without putting up a road block for authors trying to migrate to HTML5.

-- 
Simon Pieters
Opera Software