dita — archive

Rationale for

From: Jang Graat <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2017 21:21:00 -0000

(copying this to data-lightweight as it also affects that standard) That may explain why there is an <alt> instead of @alt, not why <alt> is inside <image> and can itself contain a <ph> which can contain an <image> etc. If <alt> would be part of <fig>, there would not have been any problem with any rendering system, just like there is no problem with <title> at the top of the <fig>, where lots of PDF renderings move the <title> to a caption below the image. To add to the problem, LwDITA is copying the same situation, with <alt> inside <image>. With <image> essentially being an inline element and <alt> a block element, this implies that mixed content makes its way into a standard that tries to do away with it altogether. Also, there is an irrational mismatch between the semantic markup of <image> and its modern multi-media counterparts <video> and <audio>: those elements have separate child elements for setting various parameters (track, controls, source, loop, etc - none of which have translatable content), where <image> has attributes for all such configuration data plus <alt> as a child element. A consistent semantic markup for multi-media items would use similar items for similar meanings. If <video>, <audio> and <image> are all seen as part of <fig>, they should all have a similar internal structure and markup. My suggestion would be: <element name=“fig”> <optional> <element name=“title”/> </optional> <optional> <element name=“alt”/> </optional> <choice> <element name=“image”> <attribute name=“href”/> <attribute name=“height”/> <attribute name=“width”/> <attribute name=“scale”/> </element> <element name=“video”> <attribute name=“source”/> <attribute name=“height”/> <attribute name=“width”/> <attribute name=“scale”/> <attribute name=“controls”/> <attribute name=“autoplay”/> <attribute name=“muted”/> <attribute name=“track”/> <attribute name=“poster”/> </element> <element name=“audio”> <attribute name=“source”/> <attribute name=“controls”/> <attribute name=“autoplay”/> <attribute name=“muted”/> <attribute name=“track”/> <attribute name=“poster”/> </element> </choice> </element> To comply with various accessibility standards, the <alt> would be made mandatory and would, obviously be required for video and audio as well. Jang F.M. Graat Smart Information Design Amsterdam, Netherlands On 20 Dec 2017, at 17:09, Chris Nitchie < [email protected] > wrote: In addition, there are some HTML5-based UI frameworks that provide rich-text tooltip widgets via _javascript_ that could be fed by this element. Chris On 12/20/17, 10:55 AM, [email protected] on behalf of Eliot Kimber < [email protected] on behalf of [email protected] > wrote: That design comes from the original IBM design, as far as I know. As a general principle, any content that is likely to be translated should be in element content, not attributes, which is sufficient to require <alt> rather than @alt. Cheers, E. -- Eliot Kimber http://contrext.com On 12/20/17, 3:02 AM, Mr. Jang Graat < [email protected] on behalf of [email protected] > wrote: I am working on a new DITA implementation for FrameMaker and stumble across a number of design issues, which make me wonder about the use cases that prompted the committee to choose this particular design. I have not yet found a use case that would warrant the rich semantics on an alternate text for an image that is presented by <alt>. I have yet to come across an editing and rendering system that would do something useful with such rich semantics inside <alt>. AFAIK, HTML merely offers an @alt on an <img>. Would it not have been wiser to have an @alt on <image> and push the richer semantics to a sibling of <image>, as part of a <fig> ? I really want to understand the design rationale for this and hear some convincing use cases. If such rationale and use cases are any less than convincing, I would want to propose a redesign for DITA 2.0. Jang --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this mail list, you must leave the OASIS TC that generates this mail. Follow this link to all your TCs in OASIS at: https://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/portal/my_workgroups.php