[html4all] [whatwg] several messages about the HTML syntax
Leif Halvard Silli
lhs at malform.no
Mon Apr 28 00:46:04 PDT 2008
Maurice 2008-04-28 04.10:
> I think longdesc should be expanded to all attributes.
Did you mean to say that @longdesc should be expanded to all elements?
Or to all <a href> elements? (In the code examples you only added it to
the <a href> element.)
> It will be used as a native (no javascript needed) way of making more
> useful tooltips.
> It's value can either be a full url or the id of an element on the
> current page or the id of an element on another page (but this would
> require loading a whole other file in the background just to get a
> small portion of it). [...]
> <a href="delete.php?id=443" title="Delete this record and all
> associated media" longdesc="#tooltip_delete">Delete</a> [...]
What you have identified here, is a situation where also sighted users
could benefit from a long description before taking action to activate a
link. And by having @longdesc on a <a href> the usecase als becomes
identical to the usecase HTML 4 gives for requiring that the @longdesc
URL and the <a href> URL must be accessible in two different ways. (So
that the user can choose to read the long description before following
the link.)
Having @longdesc on the <a> element should increase the use of @longdesc
greatly, and this would be beneficial in itself. Because, the problem
with @longdesc today, is that too few, including users, know that it
exist and how to use it. The problem of how to solve the hiding of the
long description - in the file itself or in an external file - is also
the same. Solving that problem will also benefit both the <img> usecase
and the <a> usecase.
I have been fiddeling with extending the use of @longdesc as well, in
connection with cross-referencing. Before the auto cross-reference
feature was deleted, I began an article, where I argue for including
@longdesc in elements of the cross-reference feature, so that one could
point to <dfn> elements on other pages.
* http://www.malform.no/cross-referencing-to-long-descriptions
I also made an example of how a long description can be kept in the same
page, while at the same time being hidden for those who don't care/need
it, yet still be available via doubleclick - for any JavScript
supporting browser:
* http://www.malform.no/acidlongdesctest
Regarding cross-refs again, taking your idea further, I could imagine <a
longdesc> without href, instead of adding the @longdesc directly to the
(former) auto cross-reference elements. The default style for <a> with
@longdesc but without @href could be different from <a href> etc. That
way one could easily use @longesc for cross-references without getting
default blue links etc (as Nicholas Shanks mentioned [1]), in addition
to the benefit of being able to show the context defining a term as a
"tooltip".
[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Apr/0725.html
--
leif halvard silli
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