Re: ALT specification

Dan Riley (dsr@lns598.lns.cornell.edu)
Tue, 20 Jun 95 11:44:22 -0400

> I have a suggestion for ALT attribut (IMG tag). Why don't we use it with
> full HTML syntax and not just with simple text.

ALT can't contain HTML markup--it violates the SGML specification (or so
I've been told--I don't claim to be an SGML guru). The SGML compliant
solution is to make <IMG> a container, so you'd have

<IMG SRC="pictures"><PRE> ... </PRE></IMG>

<IMG> would be defined to ignore its contents only if it could display
the source. Unfortunately, it is far too late to fix <IMG>, but this
is the model being used for the <FIG> element in HTML 3.0 (I don't
recall if it is in HTML 2.0).

--
Dan Riley                          Internet:  dsr@lns598.lns.cornell.edu
Wilson Lab, Cornell University     HEPNET/SPAN: lns598::dsr (44630::dsr)
	      "Distance means nothing/To me." -Kate Bush