[thelist] browsing in Netscape 6.2 with images turned off

[MRC]

David,

> >> I've found that if I view a page in Netscape 6.2 with images
> >> off, not only
> >> do the images not appear, but neither do alt tags. This means
> >> where images
> >> are used for navigation there's no clue to where links might be. Does
> >> anybody know a way around this for designers?
>
> I wish I could remember where I read a dialogue with one of the main
> designers of Mozilla. He stated that he was no longer going to perpetuate
> the mis-use of the "ALT" tag. According to him (and the W3C) the "TITLE"
tag
> is actually the correct one to use. I can't back this up but I *do*
remember
> reading his response to questions about the "ALT" tag.  He maintains that
> just because everybody has been (mis)using the "ALT" tag for years doesn't
> make it right.

    Except that's not what the original post was about. The so-called misuse
of the alt attribute is that browsers have historically rendered it as a
tooltip, or advisory text, when the cursor mouses over an image. The W3C
HTML 4.01 recommendation is silent on such usage of the alt attribute, but
does suggest such usage for the title attribute [1].
    The original post said that Netscape 6.2 fails to display the alt text
when images are turned off, not as a tooltip, but simply as on-screen text.
If this is true, I would without question consider this a bug, as it is one
of primary intended purposes of the alt attribute [2].

James Aylard

1. http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#adef-title
2. http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/objects.html#adef-alt