LYNX-DEV ALT text presentation for linked vs. unlinked IMGs

[William I. Johnston]

I am confused by the presentation of ALT texts for linked
and unlinked IMGs. I see no reason for the apparent differences
in presentation, and think perhaps a more consistent approach
could be used. Details below. Any comments from this list?

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=" "
| 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. This is one reason
for crashing ALT texts in web pages.

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 to avoid
ALT texts abutting each other (crashing), 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.

-- 
 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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