Re: IMG is Level 0, ALT _always_ #IMPLIED

Joe English (joe@trystero.art.com)
Mon, 14 Nov 94 18:55:11 EST

Dan Connolly wrote:
> Hmmm... I was thinking that you might want to validate that every IMG
> had an ALT so that the meaning of your IMG elements would be conveyed
> to text-only consumers too. [...]

I was thinking the same thing.

I'm still a little fuzzy on what the HTML levels
are supposed to mean, but the DTD has to serve
at least two purposes: defining what browsers
must accept and defining what authors should produce.

Perhaps whether ALT is #REQUIRED should be
determined by the %HTML.Recommended; switch,
and not by the level. Or set % img.alt.default
to #REQUIRED in "-//IETF//DTD HTML Strict//EN"
if not in the base DTD.

> But I suppose that some IMG elements are
> completely inessential, and it's OK for them to disappear in a
> text-only rendering.
>
> OK, so ALT is always #IMPLIED.

But isn't the recommended practice in that case
to explicitly use ALT=""?

--Joe English

joe@trystero.art.com