[uf-new] Re: figure microformat

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <F5FA4141-71BC-4716-8816-338E59A2CF68 at tobyinkster.co.uk>,
Toby A Inkster <mail at tobyinkster.co.uk> writes

>> Whatever you think of the necessity of alternative text for content
>> images, such supplementary uses of ALT and LONGDESC need (it seems to
>> me) to have some sort of place in the proposed draft.
>
>I think these attributes are very important, and that's why we should
>avoid overloading them, and allow authors to use them for the very
>important purpose for which they were designed.

Looking at the example added here:

  <http://microformats.org/wiki?title=figure&curid=5114&diff=25848&oldid=25847&rcid=39724>

  (aka <http://tinyurl.com/2pt7eq>)

it seems foolhardy to discard the alt text. If it is not used as the
legend, why not simply mandate a non-null value (i.e. not alt="" or
alt=" ") becomes part of the microformat as a property in its own right,
so that the example is parsed as:

        Image:  salesdata.png

        Legend: January sales data

        Alt:    Widget sales have fallen slightly, but widget repair
                kits have sold well.

and similarly with a URL value for "longdesc"?

-- 
Andy Mabbett