[whatwg] Missing alt attribute name bikeshedding (was Re: alt="" and the <meta name=generator> exception)

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Aug 1, 2012, at 12:56 AM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:

> 
> We briefly brainstormed some ideas on #whatwg earlier tonight, and one 
> name in particular that I think could work is the absurdly long
> 
>   <img src="..." generator-unable-to-provide-required-alt="">
> 
> This has several key characteristics that I think are good:
> 
> - it's long, so people aren't going to want to type it out
> - it's long, so it will stick out in copy-and-paste scenarios
> - it's emminently searchable (long unique term) and so will likely lead 
>   to good documentation if it's adopted
> - the "generator" part implies that it's for use by generators, and may 
>   discourage authors from using it
> - the "unable" and "required" parts make it obvious that using this 
>   attribute is an act of last resort

Here's a review of other proposed names and a few new ideas:

noalt
    Pro: brief
    Con: not very explanatory, so perhaps more likely to be misused

relaxed [suggested by Ted]
    Pro: correctly conveys "relaxed validation"
    Con: not clear what is relaxed or why

incomplete [suggested by Laura]
    Pro: correctly conveys that a non-decorative content image is incomplete without a textual equivalent
    Con: not clear what is incomplete or why

unknown
    Pro: correctly conveys the reason for omitting alt, i.e. that the name is unknown to the generator
    Con: might not be clear that it is not for human authors

unknown-to-generator
    Pro: correctly conveys intended generator use
    Con: not totally clear what it is that is unknown

I don't have a strong opinion, but I think generator-unable-to-provide-required-alt might be long to the point of silliness.


Cheers,
Maciej