Re: LYNX-DEV lynx on www.microsoft.com

[Foteos Macrides]

Wayne Buttles <address@hidden> wrote;
>> Lynx should treat ALT=""  just the same way it treats a missing ALT , by
>> reporting [LINK] , with a number if links-are-numbered.  there's no
>> reason to expect authors to make some use of the distinction between the
>> two cases to warn readers that some links are to silly graphics, rather
>> than useful visual information (even if the official rules say so).
>
>I have every reason to believe that if someone took the trouble to put in
>ALT="" then they meant it not to be viewable to text browsers.  By
>changing that behavior we will break the intended look of MANY web pages.
>
>Now, as far as <a href="a-url-for-crawlers"></a> goes...isn't that what
>this is for:
>
>l  LIST   list the references (links) in the current document
>
>A beautiful feature!  

        Right on Wayne!!!  If an author uses *valid* markup to indicate
that a link should be hidden, either because the target is inappropriate
without image handling enabled, or because the target is acting solely
as an aid for crawlers to reduce the strain of looping crawls through
the site, and the code is modified to ignore *valid* markup, but instead
gives way to esoteric hacks that *intentionally* show bracketted numbers
with no link name to indicate what they're about, that's degrading Lynx,
not enhancing it.

        If, instead, the Lynx user has configured or toggled clickable
images on, then he/she presumeably does want access to the IMG source,
and by logical extension should have "labeled" access to the otherwise
hidden link ([LINK]-[IMAGE]), as the vanilla Lynx does, and the devel
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
code should keep doing.

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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