On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:34:03 +0200, Steve Faulkner
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all,
The spec currently allows img without alt if the title attribute is
present
This is problematic for a number of reasons:
1. One of the functions of alt as implemented is that the text is
displayed
when images are disabled or not available . I ran some tests a while
back[1] and found that while webkit based browsers display title
attribute
content if images are disabled or not available, IE, Firefox and Opera do
not. I did a quick recheck and focund the implementations have not
changed
in the 2.5 years since I ran those tests.
2. title attribute content is commonly displayed as a tooltip that
appears
when a user moves their mouse over an element (in this case an img) It is
long running issue (14 years or so) that tooltips and thus title
attribute
content is not displayed for keyboard only users. Browsers vendors are
fully aware of the issue, but as yet there have not yet been moves to fix
the issue*
When this was last discussed in the HTML WG (January 2012) I opened a bug
(MOBILE-275) for Opera Mobile to expose the title attribute in our
long-click menu, arguing that one could not enjoy XKCD without it. I meant
to report back to the HTML WG but forgot, so here it is. Unfortunately,
the bug was rejected... quoting the project management:
"Sure it is nice to have, but noone else has it so we will not put our
effort into this"
"Also, we had concerns about where this belongs, UI-wise. The context menu
is a bit too prominent to display it in, in my opinion. I would like to
have this, as xkcd isn't the only web comic I read that uses it, but I
can't think of a way of doing it that doesn't add bloat."
AFAICT there's also no way to read the alt attribute on Opera Mobile. I
don't know what conclusions to draw, but if the situation is the same on
other mobile browsers and they are also unwilling to change, it seems
unwise to recommend using the title attribute to convey important
information. Of course, it would be equally unwise to use any other new or
existing attribute unless mobile browsers expose them in some way.
--
Philip Jägenstedt
Core Developer
Opera Software
