LYNX-DEV Have suggestion about Lynx -- is sig.net the place? (fwd)

[Subir Grewal]

Forwarding this because I don't know whether non-subscribers can still
post to Lynx-dev.

address@hidden + Lynx 2.7.1 + NeXT/PGP mail + www.crl.com/~subir/
"The Government's assertion is incorrect...
 The Government's reasoning is also flawed."
          -- Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens' opinion of the CDA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 1997 17:58:40 -0500
From: "William I. Johnston" <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Subject: Have suggestion about Lynx -- is sig.net the place?

Saw that you mentioned on your Lynx page that bugs for Lynx
should go to address@hidden Is this e-mail address still
the correct destination?

I am going to suggest that the presentation of collapsible
spaces around ALT texts be more consistent for IMGs that 
are unlinked and IMGs that are anchors.

In particular, when an IMG is not a link:

| [INLINE] | is presented when there is no ALT text.
| |          is presented for ALT=""
| |          is presented for ALT=" "
|   |        is presented for ALT="&nbsp;"
| text |     is presented for ALT="text"


Yet when an IMG is inside <a href ...></a>, i.e. is a link:

|[LINK]|     is presented when there is no ALT text.
||           is presented for ALT=""
| |          is presented for ALT=" "
| |          is presented for ALT="&nbsp;"
|text|       is presented for ALT="text"

Note the absence of spaces around "[LINK]" and "text" in
this situation, as opposed to the collapsible spaces that
work nicely when the IMG is not link. 

The middle three options do not become selectable links.
One could argue that this is proper behavior for ALT=""
but it is debateable whether ALT=" " and ALT="&nbsp;" should
perhaps be rendered as selectable single-space characters
when they are a linked image ALT.

Since I don't know of any rationale for the differences,
and the lack of spacing means authors have to introduce
spaces inside ALT texts or space their IMGs, I am proposing
a more consistent presentation, as follows:

For IMGs that are not links:

| [INLINE] | is presented when there is no ALT text.
||           is presented for ALT=""
| |          is presented for ALT=" "
|   |        is presented for ALT="&nbsp;"
| text |     is presented for ALT="text"

For IMGs that are links:

| [LINK] |   is presented when there is no ALT text.
||           is presented for ALT=""
| |          is presented for ALT=" "*
|  |         is presented for ALT="&nbsp;"*
| text |     is presented for ALT="text"

*I suggest that the single space in the middle be
 rendered visibly and selectable.

Who should I send this suggestion to?

-- 
 William I. Johnston
 Watertown, MA   USA
 mailto:address@hidden
 http://world.std.com/%7Ewij/

"We should work toward a universal linked information
 system, in which generality and portability are more
 important than fancy graphics techniques and complex
 extra facilities."
                        --Tim Berners-Lee, March 1989
 http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/History/1989/proposal.html

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