[2999] in java-interest
ALT in
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laura Lemay, Killer of Trees)
Thu Oct 26 01:58:06 1995
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 16:23:14 -0800
To: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM
From: lemayp@lne.com (Laura Lemay, Killer of Trees)
In the definition for <APPLET> in the JDK release notes, there are two ways
to display alternate stuff in cases where the browser doesn't have Java:
- The text in between <APPLET> and </APPLET> is displayed if the browser
does not understand Java or the <APPLET> tag. Fine.
- The string in <APPLET ALT="..."> is displayed if the browser DOES
understand <APPLET>, but DOESN'T have Java capapbilities.
I have a quibble with the latter. In fact, I think its downright silly.
The *significant* advantage over text within opening and closing tags
vs. text inside an attribute is that the latter cannot contain any
embedded HTML. Using ALT, you can only have a simple text string,
whereas in the former you can, for example, substitute an image or a
link for the applet This is also, analogously, the advantage of <FIG>
over <IMG> in HTML 3.0.
If a browser understands <APPLET>, but can't handle Java, surely it should
be able to substitute the text inside <APPLET> instead. ALT isn't needed,
and, in fact, it makes life worse for Web designers because they have to
deal with two cases of non-java browsers instead of just one.
Laura
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